Ron Hornaday overcame an ill-timed caution to win Friday night’s Chevy Silverado 350K Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway and trim third-place finisher Johnny Benson’s lead in the series standings to six points.
Hornaday led the final 40 laps and crossed the finish line .958 seconds ahead of Kyle Busch to collect his sixth victory of the season and the 39th of his career. Benson passed Todd Bodine on the final lap to secure third place, and rookie Colin Braun finished behind Bodine in fifth.
“No matter what I do, Benson’s right there,” Hornaday said after the race. “So it’s going to come down to the end of it.”
“I’m pretty good at Phoenix, and Johnny’s pretty good there, too, so we’ll just see what happens,” Hornaday said. “This is pretty cool. Two more races and we’ll see.”
After initially taking the lead from Busch on lap 51, Hornaday gave it up when he went to the pits five laps later. About the same time his crew jacked up the truck, a caution flag came out when Jack Smith made contact with the inside wall on the backstretch.
“I thought we were down and out again,” Hornaday said.
That pushed Hornaday a lap down, but he was back on the lead lap by the time there was another caution on lap 66.
Midway through the race, Hornaday and Benson raced side-by-side and nose-to-tail for several laps. They were running ninth and 10th at the time.
Rick Crawford, one of only two drivers to run in all 22 truck races at Texas, started from the pole for the first time. He finished 11th after being involved in an early accident.
| 
|