Ronda Greer Photo

You had to see it to believe it.

And you’ll never see it again.

David Starr, winless in 35 starts since his October 2002 victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, nudged his way past Chad Chaffin on the final lap to capture Saturday night’s marathon Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200.

But that’s just part of the story.

Starr, driving the Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet, was fourth at lap 160 – the scheduled distance of Gateway International Raceway’s 200-mile event – when a record four attempted green-white-checkered finishes unfolded.

By the time the Houston veteran arrived in Victory Lane there’d been a three-truck accident, leaders Shane Hmiel and Bobby Hamilton crashed each other out of contention and a red flag delay of eight minutes was required for pick up of debris from Rick Crawford’s driver-side-down slide down the 1.25-mile track’s backstretch.

Oh, and Starr cemented the victory by bumping Chaffin’s Dickies Dodge just hard enough in Turn 1 of the white flag lap to get the apparent winner loose – to the consternation of Chaffin, who wound up fourth.

Starr then out-raced series points leader Dennis Setzer to the checkered flag to win by .444-second – about two truck lengths. He averaged 93.694 mph as the race went 174 laps, besting by two serials the series’ previous longest green-white-checker finish, which occurred in 1999 at Texas Motor Speedway. That race, won by Setzer, went three overtime periods – most of any of 44 previous green-white-checkered finishes.

Ironically, the Gateway race was the final event in which NASCAR allowed more than one green-white-checkered restart. Beginning with the July 31 race at Michigan, the series will adhere to a new, one restart only policy decreed earlier in the week for all three of NASCAR’s national touring series.

That was good news for Starr, bad news for Hmiel, who under the new system would have beaten Hamilton under caution after Terry Cook, Robert Huffman and Chase Montgomery wrecked between Turns 1 and 2 at lap 161.

“I was very fortunate and blessed that the rule hasn’t come into effect yet,” said Starr. “I didn’t expect to win. I thought we were going to come out of here with a top-five finish. I was going to race the No. 18 (Chaffin) for a third or fourth.”

Instead, the battle was for the win.

“I got off the brakes and rolled into the corner a little better,” he said of the winning move. “I stuck my nose in there and hit the gas. He wiggled but kept on going.”

Chaffin, winner in June at Dover International Speedway, didn’t quite see it Starr’s way.

“I left him a hole and he drove through it like a bulldozer,” said an angry Chaffin. “I am not crying; I probably would have done the same thing.”

Starr won $54,120. In leading only the final lap – his first since last year’s finale at Homestead – he went into the series record book with Ron Hornaday Jr., who won in similar fashion at New Hampshire International Speedway in September 1996.

Setzer, one of nine drivers to trade the lead a Gateway high 15 times, led Ted Musgrave’s Mopar Dodge to the finish. Chaffin and Hank Parker Jr. filled out the top five. They were followed by Matt Crafton, Travis Kvapil, Randy LaJoie, Raybestos Rookie points leader David Reutimann and Bill Lester. Seventeen of the race’s 26 finishers completed all 174 laps, another Gateway series mark.

Setzer also was a winner on a tough night for his championship rivals. Heading Hamilton by six points entering the season’s 12th of 25 races, Setzer increased his lead to 64 as the Nashville driver wound up 17th. Third-place Carl Edwards, losing a lap after a flat tire at mid-race, was 18th and fell 166 off Setzer’s pace.

The race got off to an odd start as well with three groups of team’s adhering to different pit stop strategies – thus guaranteeing a flurry of up-and-down movement on the track’s infield scoring pylon.

Hmiel, who led a race-high 75 laps, restarted 23rd after his pit stop under caution at lap 67. The 24-year-old then raced his way back through the pack to take the lead from Bud Pole starter Jack Sprague at lap 95. The lead lap trucks returned to the same pit sequence at lap 106 when Edwards, his left rear tire flat, stalled for caution.

Sprague’s Chevy Trucks Chevrolet beat Hmiel off pit road and reclaimed the head of the field after Tracy Hines – delaying his pit stop – led under the yellow. Hmiel, however, measured Sprague on the lap 114 restart and the pair settled into a one-two formation with the three-time champion never more than a second behind the leader’s Whitaker Farms Chevrolet.

Hamilton, who’d led twice in the early going, restarted 12th but still was three seconds behind Hmiel and Sprague when he cleared teammate Chaffin for third on lap 149.

Sprague fell victim to a cut right front tire six laps later and – attempting to reach pit road with damaged front suspension – slapped the wall and brought out the race’s sixth caution. And that began the chain of restart madness.

Hamilton, at lap 161, challenged Hmiel high off Turn 2, a move canceled when Cook’s International Truck and Engine Ford hit the wall.

Hamilton duplicated the maneuver on lap 167 to draw alongside his rival but Hmiel’s mount pushed up the track sending both trucks into the outside wall and elevated Chaffin to the No. 1 spot.

“With no power steering I couldn’t save it,” said Hmiel, who – along with Hamilton – returned to the race after their crews pulled sheet metal. “I just want him to know I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Restart No. 3 at lap 167 saw Andy Houston’s Team ASE/Carquest Dodge and Crawford’s Circle Bar Motel & RV Park Ford collide at the exit of the second turn, sending the latter driver for a spectacular ride. Crawford was uninjured but saw his Gateway streak of six lead lap finishes end.

The race finally was completed with Starr becoming the season’s eighth different winner.

“The last 10 laps felt like 40,” said Starr, whose team rebounded from a loose lug nut that buried the driver in 26th-place early on before being saved by caution at lap 42. “We didn’t have the best truck but we hung in there.”

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series takes the weekend off before heading for Michigan’s Line-X Spray-On Bedliners 200.