At one point during Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 Ron Hornaday was stuck a lap down, but that did not slow the No. 33 Longhorn Chevrolet from finding the lead once again. Hornaday was fastest during both practice sessions earlier in the day and that speed showed up all race long. Taking the victory, Hornaday earned his second win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and fortieth-career Truck Series victory. 

“I have no idea where to start,” Hornaday said after climbing from his winning race truck. “I’ll tell you what, go to your local GM store and get one of these bad trucks, they’re fast. I have to thank Rick Ren (crew chief), Rick Carelli (spotter ) and everyone at KHI, they’ve been working their guts out.”

Hornaday’s night looked to be in danger when he, teammate Ryan Newman and David Gilliland hit pit road on Lap 86 under green flag conditions. When the three trucks pulled off pit road, the yellow flag flew as Kyle Busch drove into the rear quarter panel of leader Colin Braun, turning him into the lapped car of Brian Scott.

The three cars, which had been running in the top-5, were stuck a lap down when the third caution of the day came out. As the leaders hit pit road, Hornaday, Newman and Gilliland pitted only once, allowing them to restart the race ahead of the leaders on the tail end of the lead lap.

When the caution came out for a Todd Bodine’s spin in Turn 4, all three drivers were able to pull around and rejoin the field on the lead lap.

Restarting the race on Lap 100 from the eleventh-spot, Hornaday quickly went to work making his way back through the field. Hornaday’s charge to the front began on Lap 103 as he worked past rookie James Buescher for fourth. Within three laps, the driver of the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet was moving past Kyle Busch for second at one end of the speedway and under Matt Crafton for the lead on the other. 

“I haven’t figured these rules out,” Hornaday said of the new pit road rules put in place for the series in 2009. “It didn’t matter. We came in green and the yellow came out and it did it. We had a great truck. When I saw we were only fifteenth or sixteenth I knew we had a chance to come back.”

Busch made one last attempt to move past Hornaday following a restart on Lap 111, but Hornaday held his line and kept Busch on the bottom of the track. The driver of the No. 51 Miccosukee Resort Toyota was never able to recover from Hornaday’s block and finished second.

“Frustrating night,” the runner-up explained. “Some reason we had a miscommunication down in the pits. I don’t know why we had too many guys over the wall. That’s just uncalled for, that’s just unacceptable.

“Unfortunate that our night stunk that bad and we finished second,” Busch added. “Just can’t keep up with the Chevrolets there. Ron was wide-open there the whole time and I can’t run wide-open, so yeah we’re getting beat through the corners. You just can’t run with those guys. I could barely beat the 88 and we know how good their stuff is.”

Matt Crafton came up short in his efforts to repeat last year’s win at Lowe’s, but was able to come home in the third-spot after another strong performance.

Ryan Newman worked his way back through the field to the fourth-spot when the checkered flag fell. Newman had a hard-fought battle with HT Motorsports teammates Terry Cook and David Starr late in the race, but was able to pull away for his second top-5 finish in two events.

The race featured seven lead changes among six drivers and was slowed by five cautions for twenty-six laps. There was also one red-flag period lasting for 18 minutes, 58 seconds.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series moves on to the Dover International Speedway in two weeks for the AAA Insurance 200.

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