Ron Hornaday held off Kyle Busch in a green-white-checkered finish to score his 35th career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in Friday night's Sam's Town 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Hornaday scored his first-ever win at Texas Motor Speedway driving his Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet to victory lane.
The overtime finish was set-up when Scott Speed crashed in turn four, trying to make a three-wide move.
Busch, who flew in from Sprint Cup qualifying in Pocono just before the drop of the green flag Friday night, lined-up behind Hornaday on the final restart.
But Hornaday proved to be too much and after one small attempt by Busch to get by on the backstretch, the No. 33 truck pulled away to cross the finish line first by two car lengths.
"This is Texas right?” quipped Hornaday from victory lane. “We do run good here and I have to thank Eddie (Gossage) and everyone here. This is a great race track and I have to thank the fans her, they always make it exciting and everything’s big. We’ve always had good trucks here but to pull it off here and to have Benson back there and Jack because he probably had the truck to win it if the race had gone green."
“Rick Ren figured out what to do to this Camping World Chevrolet Silverado there at the end and to hold Kyle off and Benson, I really didn’t think I had them. I don’t know how I got them on the restart, or if he spun his tires or what. I just held it low and knew I could make him aero tight.”
The win was Hornaday’s second victory and sixth top-10 finish in nine NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in 2008.
Hornaday Jr. also took the lead in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship points, leading Matt Crafton by 45 points.
Busch started last in the 35 car field since his missed both qualifying and the drivers' meeting. But he steadily worked his way to the front of the field and in the end was in contention for the win in the first leg of his three-race journey that will take him to Nashville and Pocono yet to race this weekend.
"We fixed it and made the most of it," Busch said. "It wasn't for me. We made so many adjustments to it all night. We're lucky we made it home in second. ... That's all we could do."
The Craftsman Truck Series now heads to Michigan International Speedway next Saturday afternoon.
