Hornaday Back In Victory Lane At ORP
by Dan Margetta
7/23/2010

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Clermont,Ind., July 23 - Ron Hornaday served notice that he is not to be forgotten in the hunt for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title by scoring a convincing win over Kyle Busch in the AAA Insurance 200 on a steamy hot Friday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.

"I'm wore out, this was a hot, hot day, "an exhausted Hornaday told the crowd from victory lane. "This should stop all the talk about my (winless) streak," Hornaday continued after capturing his first checkered flag of the season, leading some to consider his team out of contention in the title fight. "(Crew Chief) Ernie Cope made all the right calls and this truck just took off tonight, "Hornaday stated after leading 128 laps of the race's 200 laps, including the final 48 where he steadily pulled away from Busch in the waning moments for a 2.095 second victory.

Busch started from the outside of the front row and while he failed to lead a lap, raced amongst the top five contenders all race long before settling for a second place finish.

"We were alright and the guys in the pits made awesome calls to get this truck better to be a second place truck," Busch said afterwards, "But in the end, that's just what we were, a second place truck."

Matt Crafton's truck proved to be superior as more green flag laps clicked by and he backed up the performance with a solid third place result.

"We had a very good truck on long runs," Crafton explained, " We made a one pound air pressure adjustment to make it better and we thought we might have something for them, but we just over-adjusted a little bit."

Johnny Sauter may have had the only truck that could challenge Hornaday in the end, but a late-race pit miscue where a lug nut fell off a wheel during his final pit stop, left him mired in eighth place for the final green flag run to the finish. Sauter rocketed his way back to fourth place at the finish, salvaging the evening somewhat by gaining championship points on leader Todd Bodine, ending the night 182 markers back in third place in the point standings.

"it's tough because we had one of the best trucks we have ever had, " a disappointed Sauter said later, referring to the problem in the pits. "But I'm still proud of my guys."

James Buescher ran a steady race and brought his truck home with a respectable fifth place finish.

"I'm satisfied to be a truck in the top five, "Buescher stated. "Without any cautions in the end we raced back up to fifth, so I can't really complain."

Austin Dillon continued his streak of strong finishes with a six place result while Todd Bodine crossed the finish line in seventh, just ahead of Brad Sweet in eighth. David Starr and Timothy Peters, who started from the pole and led the event twice for 72 laps rounded out the top ten finishers.

Bodine continues to lead the overall NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings by 177 over Aric Almirola, who finished a dismal 31st after being involved in an incident with Narain Karthikeyan and Mario Gosselin in turn two just prior to the halfway mark. Sauter's fourth place effort enabled him to close to within five points of Almirola for second place in the points standings, 182 markers behind Bodine.





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