2015 Kroger 200

The 2015 Kroger 200 was the 20th stock car race of the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and the 17th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, October 31, 2015, in Ridgeway, Virginia at Martinsville Speedway, a 0.526 mi (0.847 km) permanent paperclip shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete. Matt Crafton, driving for ThorSport Racing, would hold off the field on the final restart with two laps to go, and earned his 10th career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win, and his fifth of the season. Pole-sitter Cole Custer dominated the majority of the race, leading a race-high 96 laps.  To fill out the podium, John Hunter Nemechek, driving for family-owned SWM-NEMCO Motorsports, and Cameron Hayley, driving for ThorSport Racing, would finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Background

Martinsville Speedway is a stock car racing short track in Ridgeway, Virginia, just south of Martinsville. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in stock car racing, being built in 1947 by partners H. Clay Earles, Henry Lawrence, and Sam Rice, nearly a year before NASCAR was officially formed. It is also the only race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948. Along with this, Martinsville is the only oval track on the NASCAR circuit to have asphalt surfaces on the straightaways and concrete to cover the turns. At in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It is owned by International Speedway Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of NASCAR.

Entry list

* (R) denotes rookie driver.
* (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Practice

First practice

The first practice session was held on Friday, October 30, at 1:00 PM EST, and would last for 55 minutes. Timothy Peters, driving for Red Horse Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 19.721, and an average speed of .

Final practice

The final practice session was held on Friday, October 30, at 2:30 PM EST, and would last for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Timothy Peters, driving for Red Horse Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 19.708, and an average speed of .

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Saturday, October 31, at 10:15 AM EST. The qualifying system used is a multi car, multi lap, three round system where in the first round, everyone would set a time to determine positions 25–32. Then, the fastest 24 qualifiers would move on to the second round to determine positions 13–24. Lastly, the fastest 12 qualifiers would move on to the third round to determine positions 1–12.

Cole Custer, driving for JR Motorsports, would win the pole after advancing from the preliminary rounds and setting the fastest time in Round 3, with a lap of 19.530, and an average speed of .

Brandon Brown, Camden Murphy, Jim Weiler, and Charles Buchanan Jr. would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

*Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References

{{NASCAR on Fox

NASCAR races at Martinsville Speedway
October 2015 sports events in the United States
2015 in sports in Virginia