Practically on his last drops of fuel, Kyle Busch picked up his third straight Camping World Truck Series win yesterday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and as much as he could have thanked the gas gods for the victory, he got an inadvertent assist from KHI racing.
Ron Hornaday entered the race as the series points leader, and his No. 33 led 101 of the 200 laps of the Heluva Good 200, but his teammate and team owner Kevin Harvick had the better truck and fresher tires down the stretch.
There were points when it looked like Harvick could have pushed his No. 2 Silverado past Hornaday’s - he actually gave Hornaday’s back bumper a love tap at one point - but Hornaday wouldn’t let him by. While the teammates fought each other, Busch was able to cruise to his fifth win of the season. Boston Globe
“They told me I was going to be about in five [laps],” Busch said of his fuel situation in the closing laps. “I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, we just stopped and filled this thing.’ It barely made it. It ran out coming into Victory Lane there.”
Busch has now won the last three truck races he has competed in. He won at Bristol and Chicagoland last month. Busch has also won a race in each of NASCAR’s three national touring series at New Hampshire. It’s the sixth different track at which he has accomplished the feat.
“That’s something special,” Busch added. “We looked to do that everywhere we go.” MiamiHerald.com
Immediately after the race Harvick, who owns Hornaday’s No. 33 Chevrolet, stomped over to Hornaday’s truck and exchanged a few words with his friend and employee.
“It was poor communication,” Harvick said. “I felt like we had the two best trucks today.”
The gamble to try and make it on fuel paid off when Hornaday took too much fuel during his last pit stop, allowing Busch to grab the lead.
“I think we had a 5-second stop and it was maybe half a second too many,” Hornaday said.
The fuel might turn out to be the least of Hornaday’s problems. The Associated Press
“The communication between the spotter and the crew chief wasn’t relayed to the driver very clear,” Harvick said. “I felt like one of the two trucks should have won the race. I felt like we were a little bit better truck, but you can’t put yourself in position to do something underneath him [Hornaday] that would be detrimental to his championship chase.
“It’s just some things internally that we probably need to work on there. Second and third [Saturday} is still a good day, a good day for [Hornaday] in the championship race, but I feel like we didn’t do what we needed to do.”
Matt Crafton finished fourth, followed by series rookie Johnny Sauter. Stacy Compton, Brian Scott, Mike Skinner, Colin Braun and Rick Crawford completed the top 10. NASCAR
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