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Hornaday rolls in Silverado 350K

Nov 1, 2008 - 3:46 AM FORT WORTH, Texas (Ticker) -- In winning the battle on Friday, Ron Hornaday Jr. put himself in a great position to take the war.

Hornaday scrambled from a lap down in a Chevrolet to capture the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chevy Silverado 350K at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday.

"This is pretty cool," Hornaday said. "I wanted it really bad. No matter what I do, (Johnny) Benson is right there."

The victory moved Hornaday within six points of leader Benson, who finished third, in the championship standings with two races remaining.

Kyle Busch finished second in a Toyota. Benson was next in a Toyota, Todd Bodine fourth in a Toyota and Colin Braun fifth in a Ford.

Benson passed Bodine on the last lap to pick up an extra five points.

"Well, it was tough," Benson said. "You just run flat on the floor all day and kind of hold on. It was fun racing with Todd at the end."

Bodine was content with his finish.

"We were tight," he said. "At the very end, the 15 (car of Ryan Lawler) ran through the grass and covered my grill with grass.

"We got out of here with a fourth, which could have been a third. It was a good night."

In 12 starts at Texas Motor Speedway, Hornaday has eight top-10 finishes and four top fives. Benson has five top-five finishes in nine career starts here.

Hornaday was caught on pit road when a caution flag waved early in the race. He was left a lap down, but got a "lucky dog" to get back on the lead lap and moved to the front, taking the lead with more than 40 laps remaining and driving to Victory Lane.

Benson held a 31-point advantage over Hornaday entering the race.

There was a major wreck on lap two that ended the night for Cale Gale, who started on the outside of the front row, and ruined the chances of pole-sitter Rick Crawford.

Busch led the first third of the 147-lap race. He took the lead from row two once the green flag waved, dropping inside Crawford and shooting to the front.

Busch came up on lapped traffic and Hornaday took advantage, moving to the inside and driving to the lead. With Hornaday in the pits, the yellow flag waved for a caution on the track.

That put Hornaday a lap down to Busch, who had regained the lead until the rest of the field pitted under caution.

Travis Kvapil beat Busch out of the pits and took the front spot. But it did not take Busch long to move back to the point, and he remained there as a caution came out when David Starr's car spun.

The race restarted on lap 70 with Busch in charge, and he remained there until the next set of pit stops just prior to lap 100. Kvapil won the race off pit road again, with Busch falling to third behind Erik Darnell.

"This is the best-handling and best-driving truck I've ever had at Texas," Busch said.