Ron Hornaday dominates at Memphis, adds another Elvis trophy to his mantel

By Tim Tuttle - Contributing Writer

Thursday, July 02, 2009

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For the second straight race, Ron Hornaday drove to a runaway victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He was never passed on the track, never even threatened in leading 175 of 201 laps in the MemphisTravel.com 200.

Hornaday’s win the previous week at Milwaukee, where he was out front for 180 of 200 laps, arrived on his 51st birthday, but he was in a far more celebratory mood at Memphis Motorsports Park. The victory netted him another Elvis trophy, a mounted bronze statue of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll performing in his heyday. It was the fifth and final time MMP will present it to the truck winner. Hornaday took home the last two.

“It was pretty awesome to come here and win the last Elvis trophy,” Hornaday said. “That means a lot. That’s pretty cool.”

With three wins in the opening 11 races of the season, Hornaday has built considerable momentum for a run at his fourth championship in the truck series. He’s opened up a 76-point lead over second-place Matt Crafton.

“Great [points lead], but I don’t look at it that way,” Hornaday said. “I race for trophies. I’d love to have a Daytona trophy, but this [Elvis] is probably the No. 1 trophy.”

Hornaday’s Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet started from the pole and had to pass only Brian Scott’s Xpress Motorsports Toyota for position the entire race.

Using pit-stop strategy, Scott took the lead on lap 115. He’d filled the fuel tank and sacrificed some track position with an out-of-sequence stop under caution on lap 75 and made one stop, for tires, rather than two (with fueling and tires being done separately in the series this season) when Hornaday led almost the entire field into the pits on lap 113.

Hornaday restarted second and stayed within striking range of Scott. On lap 135, Hornaday got inside Scott in Turn 1. They raced almost side by side to turns 3 and 4.

Hornaday, with the preferred position, went inside the lapped truck of Brent Sherman. Scott went outside and Hornaday secured the lead entering the front straight.

“I made my move in 1 and 2,” Hornaday said. “I was racing the one-arm bandit and didn’t think I was going to get past. Scott went down on the apron a little bit, and I knew that was my chance to get around him. When you hit the apron, it pushes your truck up a little bit, and I was able to get underneath him. I got a good run down into 1.

“I didn’t even know the 90 [Sherman] was there until I got to turns 3 and 4. He ran a good line. I didn’t want to shove up into him.”

Scott was valiantly trying to stay with Hornaday on the outside. When he was forced out farther, the battle was over.

“We got messed up on the 90,” Scott said. “I might have been able to stay in front of Hornaday a little bit longer. I don’t know if we couldn’t beat him. He was awfully good.”

Once Hornaday took the lead, the race stayed green and he built up a huge lead. It was lost when the race’s final caution came out on lap 196, forcing a green-white-checkered finish.

Hornaday wasn’t seriously challenged by Scott on the restart and won by several truck lengths. Scott was second and David Starr was third. Aric Almirola finished fourth, his best in 36 career starts, and Crafton was fifth.

It was Scott’s fourth top-three of the season including his victory at Dover, his first in the series. The 21-year-old from Boise, Idaho, has established himself as a contender.

“I think we showed that if we don’t have bad luck or get caught up in an accident, we’re a top-five truck week in, week out,” Scott said. “We unload well and we run well.

That’s just their [team’s] preparation. Jeff Hensley is the best crew chief when you get to a race track. He calls a great race, and he can see it through to the end. He knows our fuel mileage. He knows our pit strategy. He has it figured out. I’m just lucky enough to go out there and drive.”

Hornaday’s victory was the 42nd of his career, extending his series record.