Kevin Harvick, Ron Hornaday cap off championship year for KHI

By Kenny Bruce - Assistant Managing Editor

Friday, November 20, 2009

Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Kevin Harvick (left) won the Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while Ron Hornaday helped KHI win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owners championship.

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NASCAR Scene (Mark Sluder, David Griffin)

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Photo gallery: NASCAR Camping World Ford 200

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Kevin Harvick used fresh tires and a fast truck to overtake Timothy Peters in a green-white-checkered finish and win Friday night’s Ford 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

It was the second consecutive victory in the series for the owner/driver, and came on the same night Ron Hornaday wrapped up the series’ owners’ championship for Kevin Harvick Inc. The veteran driver finished eighth a week after capturing the drivers’ championship at Phoenix.

Despite dominating the race by leading 106 of the race’s 136 laps, Harvick had to chase down Peters thanks to the late caution.

Peters, running second before the final yellow, chose to stay on the track while Harvick, pole winner Colin Braun and a host of others pitted for fresh tires. Once the green appeared for a final time, though, Harvick quickly moved around Peters and drove away for the win.

“I just wanted to know how many [trucks] were on the lead lap,” Harvick said of the decision to pit. “I knew we had a cushion with all the lapped trucks between us. The 17 [of Peters] was a sitting duck with four tires on our truck.”

Peters faded, eventually finishing fourth, as Matt Crafton (ThorSport Racing) and Colin Braun (Roush Fenway Racing) finished second and third. Todd Bodine (Germain Racing) completed the top five.

“That 4 truck [of Harvick], he’s been tough,” Crafton said. “They brought two really good trucks the last two races. We had a good truck; the balance in race trim was really good. … There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to beat them – we out-ran the 33 [of Hornaday].”

Kyle Busch [Billy Ballew Motorsports], looking to wrest the owners’ title away from KHI, saw his chances evaporate when a tire issue sent him to the pits, and two subsequent pit road penalties [for a tire violation and speeding] dropped him two laps off the pace. He finished 13th.

Busch had gambled during an earlier pit stop, taking fuel only during the third caution of the race on lap 59 to take the lead. But on lap 82, he dove onto pit road with a flat-right rear.