Hornaday Wins At Texas, Tightens Points Race

Ron Hornaday Jr. completes the season sweep of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races at Texas Motor Speedway after winning the Chevy Silverado 350K Friday.
Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

Ron Hornaday Jr. overcame an ill-timed caution to win Friday night's Chevy Silverado 350K NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway and trim third-place finisher Johnny Benson's lead in the series standings to six points.

Hornaday led the final 40 laps and crossed the finish line 0.958 seconds ahead of Kyle Busch to collect his sixth victory of the season and the 39th of his career. Benson passed Todd Bodine on the final lap to secure third place, and rookie Colin Braun finished behind Bodine in fifth.

"No matter what I do, Benson's right there," Hornaday said after the race. "So it's going to come down to the end of it."

With two races left, at Phoenix and Homestead-Miami, the race for the series championship is closer than it's ever been heading to the final two events.

"I'm pretty good at Phoenix, and Johnny's pretty good there, too, so we'll just see what happens," Hornaday said. "This is pretty cool. Two more races and we'll see."

Hornaday passed Busch for the lead for the first time on Lap 51, but five laps later, the defending series champion brought his No. 33 Chevrolet to the pits for four tires and fuel. As Hornaday's truck sat on pit road, Jack Smith spun on the backstretch to cause the third caution of the race.

After the rest of the contenders pitted under caution, Hornaday restarted 16th on Lap 62 at the tail end of the lead lap. A caution three laps later helped Hornaday make up ground, and by Lap 91, he had passed Terry Cook for the fourth position.

Hornaday restarted in that spot on Lap 99, after a caution for Donny Lia's spin down pit road. Nine laps later he passed Travis Kvapil for the lead and drove away. Busch took second from Kvapil on Lap 109 but had nothing for Hornaday at the finish.

Note: Hornaday swept both 2008 events at TMS, the first time a driver has accomplished that feat since Brendan Gaughan won both events at the speedway in 2003.

Results

FIN

ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 7 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet VFW 190/5 147 Running
2 3 51 Kyle Busch Toyota Miccosukee Resort & Gaming / NOS Energy Drink 180/10 147 Running
3 20 23 Johnny Benson Toyota Toyota Certified Used Vehicles 165/0 147 Running
4 10 30 Todd Bodine Toyota Lumber Liquidators 160/0 147 Running
5 9 6 Colin Braun * Ford Con-way Freight 155/0 147 Running
6 26 59 Terry Cook Toyota Team ASE / Harris Trucking 150/0 147 Running
7 4 09 Travis Kvapil Ford Zaxby's 151/5 147 Running
8 17 5 Mike Skinner Toyota XM Satellite Radio / Toyota Tundra 142/0 147 Running
9 25 16 Brian Scott * Toyota Albertson's 138/0 147 Running
10 18 22 Scott Speed * Toyota Red Bull 134/0 147 Running
11 1 14 Rick Crawford Ford Circle Bar Truck Corral / Power Stroke Diesel 130/0 147 Running
12 24 11 David Starr Toyota Zachry 127/0 147 Running
13 11 18 Dennis Setzer Dodge Carter County Dodge 124/0 147 Running
14 15 81 Donny Lia * Chevrolet Randy Moss Motorsports / NationRides.com 121/0 147 Running
15 19 60 Jack Sprague Toyota wyler.com 118/0 147 Running
16 21 10 Brendan Gaughan Ford International Maxx Force Diesel 115/0 147 Running
17 13 13 Shelby Howard Chevrolet FarmPaint.com 112/0 147 Running
18 12 99 Erik Darnell Ford Northern Tool + Equipment 109/0 146 Running
19 27 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet McGuire-Nicho-las / Menards 106/0 145 Running
20 22 9 Paul Tracy Toyota Bombardier Learjet / Sport Clips 103/0 144 Running
21 23 63 Jack Smith Ford Dave Porter Truck Sales 100/0 113 Running
22 14 15 Ryan Lawler Toyota Ergon Hyprene 97/0 106 Running
23 16 8 Chad McCumbee Chevrolet Malcolmson Construction 94/0 105 Running
24 29 40 Jeff Green Chevrolet Key Motorsports 91/0 64 Accident
25 28 08 Jason White Dodge Gunbroker.com 88/0 62 Engine
26 31 136 J C Stout Ford Mittler Bros. Machine 85/0 27 Overheating
27 30 0 Butch Miller Chevrolet ASI Limited 82/0 25 Rear End
28 32 157 Norm Benning Chevrolet Benning Racing 79/0 21 Vibration
29 5 07 Max Papis Toyota GEICO / Construct Corps 76/0 16 Accident
30 2 2 Cale Gale Chevrolet American Commercial Lines 73/0 1 Accident
31 6 21 Jon Wood Ford U.S. Air Force 70/0 1 Accident
32 8 7 T.J. Bell Chevrolet Home4TheHolidays.org 67/0 1 Accident
33 34 41 Ryan Mathews Dodge CHS Motorsports 64/0 1 Vibration
34 33 189 Mike Harmon Chevrolet Lafferty Performance 61/0 0 Engine