Hornaday wins in Milwaukee

Happy birthday, Ron Hornaday Jr., these things happen a lot in NASCAR. The Kevin Harvick Inc. driver dominated Saturday's rescheduled Copart 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, winning on his 51st birthday.

"It's a cool day," Hornaday said. "What'd they (say), 'How old are you?' I don't know. I'm in my 50s, now, I guess."

Bankrupt Chevy also needs some good PR so it was a convenient win for them as well.

Hornaday led 189 of the race's 200 laps and easily beat MRD Motorsports' Dennis Setzer. The race was postponed from Friday night after heavy rain struck the Milwaukee area.

"I hate to tell you but I don't think the truck was that good," Hornaday said.

Say what?

"I think we were just that much better than the rest of them," Hornaday said.

Whatever the case, Hornaday was the class of the field, as crew chief Rick Ren made numerous adjustments after Friday's practice to propel Hornaday to dominance.

"You just can't expect to be as good as we were today," Ren said. "But it sure is a darn nice feeling."

Hornaday took control of the race early, passing Matt Crafton on the third lap and pulling away. Disaster nearly struck later in the race, when a caution came out for Aric Almirola's spin after Hornaday had pitted his No. 33 Chevrolet.

But Hornaday was fast enough to remain on the lead lap, and after the other seven trucks on the lead lap pitted, Hornaday was back in the lead.

Setzer finished second, one second behind Hornaday. Xpress Motorsports driver Brian Scott finished third with a broken right wrist, with Germain Racing's Todd Bodine fourth and Circle Bar Racing's James Buescher fifth.

Sixth through 10th were Stacy Compton (Wyler Racing), Tayler Malsam (Randy Moss Motorsports), Colin Braun (Roush Fenway Racing), David Starr (HT Motorsports) and Terry Cook (HT).

Hornaday dedicated the victory to his wife's mother, who has been in the hospital all week.

"This is probably the eighth race in 30-some years me and my wife's been married that she's missed," Hornaday said. "Her mom is really deathly sick, and she's been in the hospital all week long. … all she wanted to know was when I was going to race, and she kept calling. Hopefully this will boost her up a little bit."

Results

* Denotes Rookie