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Hornaday Jr. wins O'Reilly Auto Parts 250

Apr 27, 2008 - 4:40 AM KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Ticker) -- Ron Hornaday Jr. held steady on the final lap to win Saturday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 250.

The 49-year-old Hornaday, in a Chevrolet Silverado, fought off charges from Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate Jack Sprague for his 34th career series victory.

"Can't say nothing bad about the day overall," Hornaday said. "It was a lot of fun even though I tried to make a race out of it at the end with Sprague almost catching me.

"I got a little sideways when I got down in the corner of turn three on the last lap and Jack was a lot closer than I thought. It would have been a heck of a wreck if he would have gotten to the outside."

It was the first win in 12 races for the Palmdale, California native, who also became the first driver to win from the pole at the Kansas Speedway.

Sprague finished second for his 28th career top five finish at a 1.5 mile track while rookie Colin Braun came in a career-best third in a Ford F-150.

"Ron and I both had good trucks here all weekend," Sprague said. "I think I might have been better on the long runs, and on that last lap. But I had to use a bit too much of the truck up coming from the back and I was also a little bit too tight (in the corners) too.

"We both had great trucks and finished one-two. I wanted to win this race really bad and tried really hard to stay out of trouble but we just came up one short. But who better to lose to than your teammate?"

Braun was just thrilled with his top-three finish.

"The whole No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 team was awesome," Braun said. "Those guys did a heck of a job. We had a really fast truck and finally got it finish that I felt like we kind of deserved."

Johnny Benson and veteran Mike Skinner rounded out the top five in Toyota Tundras.

Hornaday now takes over the lead in the 2008 Craftsman series as the previous leader, Kyle Busch, wasn't at the track because of his participation in the Nationwide and Sprint races at Talladega SuperSpeedway.

A record 12 cautions disrupted the race.

"It wasn't slippery," Sprague said. "I don't know what the reasons for the cautions because this track usually shows green-flag stops and very few yellow flags."