Hornaday adds to his Truck win total
Kevin Harvick Inc.'s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team had a good weekend at Kansas Speedway.
Ron Hornaday Jr., driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado for Kevin Harvick Inc., won the Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway, the 34th of his career, and added to his career win total, the most of any Truck Series driver.
Hornaday also took over the lead in the Truck Series standings. Kyle Busch had the lead before the race at Kansas Speedway, but he was at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide series races. He won the Cup race, crashed out of the Nationwide race.
After winning the race in Kansas, Hornaday built a 61-point lead over Rick Crawford. Busch dropped to sixth place.
Jack Sprague, Hornaday's teammate at KHI, finished second at Kansas and moved up six spots in the Truck Series standings to ninth place.
"It was a lot of fun and I was going to try and make a race out of it and Sprague almost caught me and I was like, wow," said Hornaday, a former Saugus Speedway champ from Palmdale. "So this is what it's all about because I believe in these guys in hanging these bodies and the first time I saw this truck is the first day that I got down here and sat in it. I just have a lot of faith in these guys and when you get the truck off the trailer you can hold it wide open. I really appreciate it because I hadn't won here in Kansas so this is cool."
Hornaday became the first Truck Series driver to win a race from the pole at Kansas. He also credits his crew chief, Rick Ren, for coming up with a fuel strategy to win the race.
They were cutting it close and when Dennis Setzer wrecked late in the race, it gave Hornaday a chance to conserve enough fuel to finish the race. It restarted with 34 laps remaining and Hornaday won by 0.149 seconds ahead of Sprague.
"I'm glad that was on Rick Ren's head because everyone is just as cool as they can be on this Camping World Chevrolet," Hornaday said. "I also have to thank VFW to come on board with us. I am sure the hair on Rick's head turned grayer (Friday) but that's what it's all about."