High Sierra Photo

Dennis Setzer and his #46 Chevrolet Silverado race team showed that the competition better take notice of this team at more than just the short tracks.  Setzer and his one-race teammate, Michael Waltrip, dominated the mid to late part of the Infineon 200 on Friday night, but it was Setzer’s late race pass of Carl Edwards that gave him the win.  Dennis Setzer behind the wheel of the #46 Chevrolet Silverado fielded by Morgan Dollar Motorsports brought home the team’s sixth win overall and first win this year with the victory in the Infineon 200 for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. 

It was Setzer’s 11th career win in NCTS competition for the Newton, NC native.   The win also extended Setzer’s series points lead to 37 with five of the 25 events on the 2004 schedule in the record books.  And speaking of records, Dennis set another NCTS record by scoring tonight’s win as he now has at least one win in seven consecutive seasons of NCTS competition.

Setzer took the lead on lap 122 of the 134-lap, 200-mile race only to lose it six laps later to Carl Edwards.  The pair then waged a crowd pleasing battle with Setzer taking the point again on lap 131 charging to the checkered a mere 0.869 seconds ahead of Edwards.

“This is a really big win for us tonight,” Setzer said from victory lane.  “I’ve won a few races and the team has too, but this one is really special to us.  The #46 Morgan-Dollar Motorsports Silverado team has just been awesome this year. Chevrolet Silverado came on board to sponsor us this year and we are so happy to get this first win for them.”

“We thought the caution was going to come out but I’m not sure if the caution light came out on that incident or not. I thought we might have a caution because I saw a whole bunch of smoke but I’m not sure if it did.  I just got back in it and it opened the door for us.  I was just fortunate I got through there.  We were a little off to start the race and we came in to adjust it but we got a little worse.  On our last stop the crew chief really dialed it in.  I jumped by Harvick on the outside.  Carl Edward and Michael Waltrip got in to each other a little bit and we were able to pull up there and get in the mix.”

Michael Waltrip competed in a second Morgan-Dollar Motorsports race truck that is sponsored by Acxiom, an Arkansas-based data integration company that has been affiliated with MDM since 1998.  Chevrolet and Acxiom have teamed with MDM to create this “All-Star” team that will compete in six more races this season.  It looked early on that Michael Waltrip would take home the win for Morgan-Dollar and Chevrolet, but it was Setzer who was able to come away with just his second win at a 1.5-mile race track.

Waltrip led 39 laps of the 134-lap event, mostly from the mid-point of the race on.  He and Carl Edwards got together fighting for the lead and Waltrip would fall to fifth place.  The door opened for Setzer and he made it to the front with twelve laps to go.  Then Carl passed Dennis on lap 128 and led until lap 130 when the caution controversy ensued.  Setzer made his pass with two laps to go and held on for the win.