By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

SACO – Craig Langille has been pretty close to a win at the TD Banknorth 250.

He was on Scott Fraser’s crew for many years and finished third. He was on Kyle Busch’s crew last year and watched teammate Mike Rowe win the crown

“We felt like we had the car that could win the race but then a pit stop screwed us up,” said Langille. “When Mike won, we were right there and got to celebrate with them.”

That’s the next best thing but not the kind of victory a crew member ultimately desires.

“We were close, but I still can’t say I’ve been on the team that won the 250,” said Langille, who will travel down from Nova Scotia this week for the race. “That’s what I want. That’s been one of my goals and will be until I set foot on the podium or at least stand near it.”

Langille is part of Busch’s crew again at Sunday’s race. He’ll be joined by other returnees, Billy Lowell, Troy Lowell and Jim Reilley. Bill Hill and David Bath will be two newcomers. They are part of SP2 Motorsports effort to secure another 250 victory and part of the reason Busch is returning for a second year. Providing Busch a quality car and team was critical in the Nextel Cup driver’s second appearance.

“If I struggled along at 15th or 18th all day last year, you might not have seen me again this year,” said Busch. “SP2 Motorsports, they’ve got their act together. They know what they’re doing. I’m very fortunate to be associated with those guys.”

With Busch and Rowe, SP2, co-owned by Steve Perry and Scott Pullen, have two of the top contenders for Sunday’s race. They’ve put together two cars and a pair of quality crews.

“They could both be in the top three at the end of the day,” said Brian Burgess of Leeds. Burgess had been Ben Rowe’s crew chief for 12 years and joined the SP2 team in Saco this year. “It definitely gives more drive and more ambition to know you’re going to go to the racetrack and be in contention to win.”

Mike Rowe has his regular group. Turner’s Seth Holbrook is the crew chief while Harrison’s Dana Bean handles the tires. The rest of the team comprises Dick Nadeau, Noreen Nadeau, Steve Tapley, Annette Dolbeare, Rodney Johnson, Stephen Holbrook, Michael Anderson and Steve Purvis.

Many of Rowe’s team worked with Busch during testing last week and helped prep his car, but Busch needed his own crew for the race. Finding interested people wasn’t difficult.

“You have to turn people away,” said Holbrook. “You want to pick the best guys that you can, but there’s too many people that want to do it because it’s Kyle Busch.”

Many of Busch’s crew are people that Holbrook knows and trusts. He worked with Hill when Holbrook left Ben Rowe’s team. Hill was on the crew for both of Rowe’s 250 wins.

“Bill’s a great tire guy,” said Holbrook. “We put together the best best team we could. In my opinion, we’ve got three of the best tire guys. We’ve got Bill Hill. Buster (Bean) did the tires last year, and we won. I always did Benji’s tires. So when it comes to tires, we should be all right.”

Billy Lowell was with Mike Rowe for one of his three 250 wins, and Troy is his son. Terry Merrill and Larry Leighton were part of the crew last year but might be racing and unavailable. Langille worked for Fraser for 15 years and has been part of 12 250 races.

“It was well thought out when they put that group together,” said Langille.

Last year, the team was thrown together for the race and nearly won before a lug nut wreaked havoc with the car’s handling down the stretch. It was a challenge to step into that situation and work together, but the team managed fine.

“It was a high pressure situation,” said Langille. “I was a little apprehensive as a Canadian. I do know Seth well, and he had enough confidence in me to ask me to come down and do it.”

Hill is one of the newcomers. Working with the tires, he knows he’s just got to concentrate on his job and not worry about what people are doing with the chassis.

“For the tire guys, it’s a full time deal, and he sticks with that,” said Hill, of Windham.

Langille says working with Busch was a great experience, but it was a very business-like atmosphere.

“Kyle’s a person that was here to race,” said Langille. “He’s not here to talk about what he did last night or last week. He’s here to talk about what’s good about his race car.”

Hill helped Kyle Moore’s team last year. Though he joins a promising team, he knows that doesn’t guarantee anything.

“The 250 is the biggest race in the state, but it’s often not the best car or the best chassis that wins,” he said. “There’s a lot of sob stories. You can’t be overconfident.”

Though Rowe’s team is accustomed to working together, Busch’s crew gathers for the first time this weekend.

“We’ll have to get our practice in during the three hours on Sunday, said Hill. “So there’s a lot of work to be done.”

With the entire SP2 Motorsports enterprise side-by-side, there is plenty of experience and resources for both crews to utilize.

“It will certainly make a difference, but we’ll all be together,” said Burgess. “The people that he tested with will be right there. I think we learned a lot together that day. We worked hard with Kyle.”