The back-to-basics approach seems to work for Ron Hornaday and the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Camping World Truck Series team.
Hornaday snapped a 22-race winless streak in the Truck Series on Friday night, winning the AAA Insurance 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park.
Watched by team owner Kevin Harvick, Hornaday led 129 laps and beat runner-up Kyle Busch by 2.095 seconds for his first victory since Aug. 1 of last year at Nashville Superspeedway.
Hornaday credited crew chief Ernie Cope—who rejoined the truck team while maintaining his crew chief job with the KHI Nationwide Series group—with helping turn things around. NASCAR.com
It was the 46th career Truck Series victory for the California native Hornaday, and it was his fourth career victory at the 0.686-mile ORP short track.
Timothy Peters started from the pole in his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota, with the first caution coming on Lap 10, when Chris Jones popped a right-front tire.
Peters held the lead until Lap 63, when Hornaday put the No. 33 Georgia Boot Chevrolet into the lead for the first time. It would stay there for most of the rest of the hot Indiana evening.
From there, Hornaday pulled out smartly, with outside pole-sitter Kyle Busch second in his own No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota, at least for a few laps until Matt Crafton took the spot in the No. 88 Menards Chevy.
Caution No. 2 waved on Lap 86, after debris was spotted on the track. By this point, there were just 14 trucks on the lead lap, and most of the leaders used the yellow period to pit for fuel and tires.
Hornaday held the lead on pit road, emerging ahead of Crafton, Busch, Truck Series Todd Bodine and Johnny Sauter. The track went green on Lap 91. FOXNews.com
“It was just a great day,” said Hornaday, who led 129 of 200 laps. “Hopefully, it keeps everybody a little bit quiet, but it took [crew chief] Ernie [Cope] to come here and settle everyone down, because the guys were getting a little anxious. We know we’ve got a winning team, but we just had to prove it to them.”
One year ago at ORP, Hornaday made series history by becoming the first driver to win four races in a row. Hornaday extended his record to five consecutive victories the following week at Nashville.
Busch’s second-place run was his best finish at this short 0.686-mile oval.
“We made it through the evening pretty well,” Busch said. “I thought we had a shot to win there and battle with Hornaday a little bit. I felt like if maybe I could have stayed in front of him the results would have been a little different, but we knew going into practice, he was a little bit better than we were. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have enough for him tonight.”
Matt Crafton finished third, while Johnny Sauter and James Buescher rounded out the top-five. MiamiHerald.com
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NASCAR Truck Series: AAA Insurance 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park - Race Results
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