JOSH MELTZER The Roanoke Times

Tim Cowen (left) and Timothy Peters narrowly get past Phillip McGilton, who is spinning out on Turn 4, during Saturday's Kroger 250 Craftsman Truck race at Martinsville Speedway.

JOSH MELTZER The Roanoke Times

Dennis Setzer celebrates in Victory Lane following his Kroger 250 Craftsman Truck triumph on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.

MARTINSVILLE -- Just miles from their Henry County shop, where they'd picked up the pieces and pounded on race cars in honor of the man who built this team, members of Bobby Hamilton Racing enjoyed an unexpected day of celebration Saturday.

Four races. That's all it took before the newly configured team, staffed with Virginians and local racing royalty and based just outside the Martinsville city limits, found victory lane.

Dennis Setzer got it done behind the wheel -- pulling away to win the Kroger 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck race -- but everyone involved said this was as much about the late Bobby Hamilton as anything else.

"Nobody stopped to grieve, because Bobby wouldn't have wanted that," said Lori Hamilton, who took over the team after her husband died in January 2007. "He would have said, 'You all get to the race track.'

"This win today was why we continued."

Hamilton started the team in 1996 and was a hands-on owner until his death.

In December, Lori Hamilton pulled up the stakes in Nashville -- citing a need to be closer to the Charlotte racing hub -- and moved the team to Henry County, joining forces with local engine builder Joey Arrington and familiar Virginia racing names Stacy Compton, Mac Bailey and Clay Campbell, the Martinsville Speedway president.

"We made an announcement to the employees," Lori Hamilton recalled, "and later that afternoon the truck showed up to load everything up and move it to Martinsville. It was fast. Nobody had time to breathe. We lived out of hotels for a month, but the right people were in the right places.

"The organization had to go on."

They moved into Arrington's race shop just east of the city. Campbell, who signed on after an offer from Compton, said they brought 18 to 20 truckloads of gear over several weeks.

"If you'd seen it in December, right after Christmas, you'd say, 'There ain't no way in the world this is going to work, putting everything in here.'" Campbell said. "But every day I went over, they'd straightened this up and straightened that up. But the time it was all said and done, we had a real nice race shop."

Setzer's chassis was built by Bobby Hamilton. Setzer had a strong truck all day, making his last pit stop on lap 78 and taking the lead for good on lap 128. Rival after rival fell away, running out of gas or spinning into a wall.

Campbell crept down behind the flag stand as the final laps ticked off the scoreboard. He'd driven in so many races, presided over so many events here, seen so many finishes at this old track -- but never had he felt quite like this.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking," the fledgling owner said. "Restart after restart after restart. Probably one of the longest races I've ever seen. It actually wasn't, but it felt that way to me."

A late caution -- the 15th of the day -- forced extra laps and a green-white-checkered finish. Setzer had a comfortable lead coming into the final turn and took the checkered flag with ease. Behind him, Kyle Busch made contact trying to pass Johnny Benson for second place, causing both trucks to spin. That allowed Matt Crafton take second and Rick Crawford third, while Benson dropped to 25th and Busch 26th.

As Setzer celebrated in victory lane, a shoving match broke out in Busch's pit stall between members of Benson's and Busch's crews. Neither driver was involved and the scuffle was quickly broken up.

Busch said he was doing all he could to attempt to move into second and simply lost his breaks as he came into the turn. Benson was more frustrated about the incident.

"Just got spun out," he said. "I went into the corner as hard as I had been doing all day. Been doing everything that I needed to do. To do what we had to do with the 18. You know, I don't know. It's just a shame that it had to happen. It's happened a lot I think within this series. Just a shamethat nothing ever gets done about it."

Setzer, who joined BHR this year, said this was the most special of his three truck wins at Martinsville. The entire team dedicated the win to Bobby Hamilton.

"You don't find many drivers like Bobby was," Campbell said. "He could do it all. He could build them, he could work on them, he could drive them. He knew everything in it from top to bottom.

"You've got to commend the guy, because he was a true racer."