Hornaday Wins Atlanta Truck Race
RacinToday.com
Ron Hornaday Jr. inherited the lead when a group of several drivers ahead of him had to pit for gas during the final 20 laps and went on to win the Good Sam Club 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday night.
“I’ll take them anyway I can get them,” Hornaday said afterward.
The victory was Hornaday’s second in the series this season.
Finishing second was Clint Bowyer, who was making his fourth start of the season and, like Hornaday, was driving a Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet.
Kyle Busch finished third and Blake Feese was fourth. It was the best finish of Feese’s career.
Ryan Newman was fifth.
Hornaday, who won the series championship in 2009, collected his 49th Camping World victory.
Hornaday led the final 17 laps – the only laps he led all night – to win the race.
“See that trophy? We stole it tonight, but I’ll take it,” Hornaday said.
Hornaday inherited the lead on lap 114, when the last of the night’s top three cars pitted.
Bowyer dominated the action until that point, leading three times for 97 laps.
“The 2 truck was definitely the best truck of the night,” Busch said. “It’s good to see these guys sucker one away from them.”
It was Hornaday’s second victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway. And it was anything but assured after the way Hornaday’s race started. Early on, he ran into the back of another truck during a restart, but the crew made repairs and sent Hornaday out primed for his late-race takeover.
“It was really pretty easy because after what happened at the start, it was the only chance we had,” said crew chief Jeff Hensley. “When the caution came out we came down pit road. I knew we could make it on fuel. We were OK. We just got lucky. Lucky and a little bit of planning too.”
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