Hornaday became the first driver to win a truck race at Kentucky from the pole, claiming his fourth victory in the 2009 campaign. This was Hornaday’s third victory in a row and he has now opened a 96 point lead on Matt Crafton in the Championship standings.
“I hate to say it, but we didn’t have the truck to win,” Hornaday said. “One more lap and I don’t know if [Mike Skinner] would have caught me, but it would have been a heck of a race.”
Ron Hornaday captured his 43rd career victory Saturday evening
Hornaday and his Kevin Harvick Incorporated team got caught on Friday with a rear-end housing that was one-quarter inch off of NASCAR’s specifications, and they had their primary truck impounded.
Hornaday’s crew chief, Rick Ren, was adamant in the post race press conference that neither he nor his KHI team were trying to manipulate the rules. “I need to address the issue,” Ren said. “Neither I nor anyone at Kevin Harvick Inc would try to purposely cheat.”
It seems that Hornaday and team didn’t need to bend the rules to make their truck go fast, but they did make some major adjustments during the race. “On that last stop, we put fuel in and the yellow came out and we put four tires on and made some ‘hellacial’ adjustments,” Hornaday said. At one point Hornaday noted that they team went up five rounds on the trackbar.
It all worked out.
“I don’t wish bad luck on anybody, but we didn’t have a second place truck,” said runner up Mike Skinner. “I think one more [lap] and we might have had him.” Skinner sits third in Camping World Truck Series points.
On lap 114 former Sprint Cup Series driver Aric Almirola took the lead by only taking right side tires on a pit stop. He began to pull away from the field when another yellow flew five laps later. Almirola almost wrecked on the next restart, a he pulled his #15 Toyota up the track to block his teammate Brian Ickler.
Former Mark Martin protege Aric Almirola had ashot at winning the "Built Ford Tough 225"
“We were driving away and the caution came out there and the caution after caution, after caution really hurt us,” Almirola said after the race.
After another caution for fluid and debris on the track, Almirola brought the field down for a restart, and on lap 132 he got passed by Hornaday, who set sail for a few laps.
In the last forty laps of the race there were five cautions, including two within the last twelve circuits. After rookie Tayler Malsam blew a left front tire driving down the front stretch with seven to go.
Cue Hornaday, the restart master. With Todd Bodine and Mike Skinner following, the #33 truck pulled away to .22 seconds with two to go, and although Skinner charged hard, Hornaday held him off.
“Ronnie did a good job,” Skinner said. “I just hate it—doggone it, we were close.”
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I’ll have more tomorrow from my busy twenty-four hours at Kentucky Speedway. Tomorrow marks seven days until the Brickyard 400, and if the media pass this weekend is any indication, you will bet that next weekend will be an even better time.
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