Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Ron Hornaday wins chaotic Truck race at Lowe's Motor Speedway
Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Ron Hornaday celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
// David J. Griffin, NASCAR Scene
CONCORD, N.C. – On a night when chaos lurked all around, Kevin Harvick Inc.’s Ron Hornaday averted major trouble and outlasted a fast Kyle Busch en route to victory in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Hornaday, who rallied from a lap lost when he pitted a couple laps prior to a midrace caution, powered by Busch and ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton to take the lead on lap 106 and held on to lead the rest of the 134-lap distance in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200.
The win, the 40th of Hornaday’s career and his first of the season, propelled the three-time champion to the series points lead by 84 points over Randy Moss Motorsports’ Mike Skinner.
“We had a great Truck,” Hornaday said. “Everybody [has been] asking who you’ve got to race for the championship. This will show it.”
Crafton, the defending race winner, came home third followed by Ryan Newman (KHI) and Terry Cook (HT Motorsports).
Busch overcame two penalties – one for rough driving one and another for having too many men over the pit wall – to snare his runnerup finish, but he was none too pleased with the outcome.
“Frustrating night,” Busch said. “Unfortunate that our night really stunk that bad and we finished second.”
It was a tougher night for Skinner, who finished 29th after a vicious accident ended his night on lap 34. Skinner walked away uninjured after his truck hit the wall, was tagged by the machine of T.J. Bell, flipped and slid on its roof several feet before coming to rest with all four wheels on the ground.
The mishap started when Skinner was pinched down in the grass at the start/finish line by ThorSport’s Johnny Sauter and lost control of his truck coming out of the trioval.
“I knew who I was racing with right there,” Skinner, who led the race's opening 27 laps, said of Sauter. “I probably should let off the gas and waited another lap.”
The wreck, one of several accidents involving frontrunners, forced NASCAR officials to red flag the race for just over 18 minutes.
Two others drivers – Roush Fenway Racing’s Colin Braun and Germain Racing’s Todd Bodine – led late in the race only to crash while out front.
Braun’s accident was the more noteworthy, as it came after a bump from Busch sent his truck into Brian Scott and hard into the backstretch wall.
Busch was subsequently ordered to the tail end of the longest line for rough driving and restarted 10th before a late surge toward the front.
"I was just rolling out of the throttle to allow those guys to race and I veered to the left a little bit and got into the quarter panel of the 6 [Braun] and wrecked him and the 16 [Scott] on accident," Busch said. "And it was my fault, so we will have to let that one roll off our shoulders and try to go on."
