Truck series: Hornaday tops Skinner in thrilling duel

Ron Hornaday captured his third Craftsman Truck Series title in a race that had evolved into a two-man show by midsummer.

Though the truck series doesn't have a Chase format, the battle between Hornaday and Mike Skinner perhaps contained more suspense than the Nextel Cup contest between teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Hornaday and Skinner, it seemed, traded the points lead almost as often as they swapped positions on the race track.

The two drivers arrived at the 25th and final event of the season, the Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, knowing one or the other would be champion. A title for Skinner would give the driver of the No. 5 Bill Davis Racing Toyota his first championship since the series debuted in 1995. A title for Hornaday would give the give driver of the No. 33 KHI Chevrolet a record-tying third championship.

Entering the final race, Skinner held a 29-point lead, but a broken wheel doomed his championship hopes. Skinner finished 35th, 11 laps down and lost the title to Hornaday, who ran seventh, by 54 points.

For the first half of the season, however, Skinner looked like a runaway winner. He collected consecutive victories at California, Atlanta and Martinsville -- the second, third and fourth events of the season -- to open a 94-point lead over defending champion Todd Bodine. Hornaday was fourth at the time, 144 points back.

As Bodine faded, Hornaday took over second place, but after winning at Kentucky Speedway in the 13th race of the year, Hornaday trailed Skinner by 164 points. By then, third-place Bodine was 288 points behind.

In the following race at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont, Ind., Hornaday's fortunes began to turn. He won his third race of the year as Skinner finished 20th and lost all but 77 points of his lead. The victory was the first of 10 top-10 results Hornaday would post over the final 12 races. During that stretch, he won twice and finished second four times.

After running seventh at Talladega, Hornaday held a 14 point lead with five races left in the season. Skinner regained the advantage at Martinsville, lost it at Atlanta and regained it at Texas, after which he held a 57-point margin. Hornaday trimmed the lead to 29 points at Phoenix, then delivered the coup de grace at Homestead.

Though he didn't win the championship, it was nevertheless an astounding season for Skinner, who won a series-record 11 poles to go with his five victories. Hornaday, Johnny Benson and Travis Kvapil each won four races. With two victories each, Bodine and Kyle Busch (who made 11 starts in the series) were the only other drivers with more than one win.

• Mentioned Drivers:
• Jeff Gordon