Kyle Busch finished second in the Craftsman Trucks Series race, the first of a planned cross-country trifecta to become the first driver to race in all three of NASCAR’s national series at three different tracks on the same weekend.
Ron Hornaday Jr. held off Busch for the final two laps after a green-white-checkered finish for his 35th career victory, his first at the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked Texas track.
On the previous restart with 11 laps to go, Busch moved from fourth to second in less than one lap, getting past Johnny Benson and Jack Sprague to get behind Hornaday. But Busch never could push in front for the lead.
Because Busch didn’t drive the truck during qualifying, and also missed the drivers’ meeting, he had to start at the back of the 35-truck field. He was up to 16th after only 30 laps, and was in the top 10 within 53 laps.
“We fixed it and made the most of it,” Busch said of his Toyota, which he wasn’t happy with all night. “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.”
“I’ve finally won here,” an exuberant Hornaday said in Victory Lane while hugging crew chief Rick Ren.
By finishing second at TMS, Busch moved Billy Ballew into second place in owner points.
“That’s what matters most,” said Busch, who was unhappy with the truck setup after missing all the practice sessions. “It wasn’t a very good night, to be honest with you. We were terrible there at the beginning, absolutely junk.”
The final restart was set up when Scott Speed, the ARCA rookie who traveled with Busch from Pocono, slammed into the wall with two laps to go in the scheduled 167-lap race.
That set up the fifth straight green-white finish at Texas, extending the race to 172 laps. But Busch, more than a half-second behind Hornaday when the caution flag came out, couldn’t take advantage of the extra restart.
“I spun my tires a little too much and wasn’t able to get alongside Ron,” Busch said. “When he went, I went and I went too hard, and spun the tires. So I missed out on a good run.”
Hornaday led a record 140 laps and finished 0.283 seconds ahead of Busch, taking over the season points lead.
Benson was third and Sprague was fourth. Todd Bodine, a four-time winner at Texas, finished fifth. Rookie driver Justin Marks, who felt ill during the race, finished 14th.
“I wanted this race so bad,” Hornaday said. “He [Busch] had nothing to lose in this race except to try to win all three races in three different states. And he almost pulled it off.”
With the victory, Hornaday took over the points lead from Rick Crawford, who finished 21st after a crash.
Asked how he felt afterwards, Busch denied fatigue.
“I’m not tired,” he said, “just hot.”
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