Truex to start up front in Bi-Lo 200



Rain pushed the truck series race to this afternoon.
DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) -- Busch series points leader Martin Truex Jr. will start up front after rain washed out qualifying Friday for the Bi-Lo 200.
The cars were lined up based on owner's points for today's race at Darlington Raceway. Kyle Busch, 161 points behind Truex in second, will start second. Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Justin Labonte round out the top five.
With 30 points today, Truex can clinch his first Busch championship for car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. Truex would be the first rookie to win the Busch title since his car owner did it in 1998.
"It's easy to be a car owner when the car runs good," Earnhardt said. "I'm looking forward to the race this weekend."
Truex finished fourth at Darlington in March. Busch won the pole here in the spring. He has gained 47 points on Truex the past two races at Atlanta and Phoenix.
NASCAR truck series
DARLINGTON, S.C. -- An off-and-on rain forced postponement of the NASCAR truck series race, which was to be the first under the lights at Darlington Raceway.
The race was moved to today at 5:30 p.m. EST after the scheduled NASCAR Busch series Bi-Lo 200. The Nextel Cup's Southern 500 takes place on Sunday.
The Craftsman series race, the second-to-last of the season, was Darlington's first chance to showcase its multimillion dollar lighting system. And officials did all they could throughout the day -- rain had earlier wiped out Nextel Cup and Busch qualifying -- to drop the starting flag on time.
Twice in the two hours before the scheduled 8 p.m. start, jet-dryers had seemingly gotten the track dry enough to start. Driver introductions were complete and prerace awards were given out when the strongest rainfall of the day hit the area and quickly forced officials to postpone the event.
Carl Edwards starts on the pole with Shane Hmiel right behind. Series points leader Bobby Hamilton, who has won two of the three previous Darlington truck races, was fifth in the starting grid. Dennis Setzer, who trails Hamilton by seven points in the championship race, is back in the field starting 17th.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.