By Ken de la Bastide

(May 12, 2013) - For Trey Craig the third time proved to be the charm as he finally passed Josh Cave with 12 laps remaining to win the ARCA/CRA Sportsman feature at Anderson Speedway.

Twice Craig was able to make a run on Cave between laps 50 and 60, but both times he was forced to give ground as the leader’s encountered slower traffic running in the low groove.

Finally on lap 63 Craig was able to get inside of Cave entering turn three to claim the point. Cave was battling an ill-handling race car as his tires were fading.

There was a lengthy caution to clean fluids off the track deposited by the car of Ronnie Rose. That appeared to give new life to Cave’s Ford.

On the restart on lap 64 Cave was able to stay with Craig on the outside and took the lead on lap 65. Craig regained the point one lap later when the caution flag waved when Greg VanAlst spun in turn two while running third.

Cave’s car slowed on the restart bringing out the ninth caution of the night after making contact with the wall.

Craig pulled away from the remaining three cars on the final restart with Spillers coming home in second followed by Mark Lambert and Rob Allman.

It was Craig’s first ever win with the CRA Sportsman Series in two years of competition.

There were six cautions during the first 30 laps of the 75 lap event as Cave repeatedly held off challengers Chris Hacker and fast qualifier K.C. Spillers.

Craig started seventh in the 24-car field and cracked the top five after only 20 laps. He passed Spillers on lap 44 with an inside move on the front straight to claim the second spot and set his sights on Cave.

Only 12 of the 24 car were still running at the finish. There were four lead changes among two drivers.

It was a tough night for two drivers that have each recorded four wins at Anderson Speedway in CRA Sportsman competition.

Keith Sterkowitz was running third on lap 21 when he spun after being bumped by Ronnie Rose coming off the fourth corner.

Sterkowitz worked his way back into the top ten after another ten circuits, but slowed on lap 32 ending his night.

Jason Atkinson was running in the top ten by lap 20, but pitted during a caution period and lost several laps. He returned to the fray, finishing 12th.

Chris Hacker, who started on the pole following the inversion of the fastest eight drivers during qualifying, ran in the top five through the first 30 laps when he made contact with the outside retaining wall which ended his night with suspension damage.