Ron Hornaday Jr. and Jack Sprague, a pair of Kevin Harvick Inc. teammates, pulled away from the field, taking the top two spots in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck O’Reilly Auto Parts 250.
Hornaday knew he had a good truck when he qualified as the pole sitter earlier on Saturday, but maybe not this good. It wasn’t a bad win considering he hadn’t even sat in the winning truck at the beginning of the week.
“I got here and I had to adjust the seatbelt a little bit and I was ready to race,” Hornaday said.
By the time Hornaday finished the race he was so happy with his truck he opted not to take any burnouts, so as not to damage it.
Hornaday and Sprague pulled away from the pack early on leading by as much as six seconds in the first 15 laps. A dozen caution flags helped keep the field close as the race went on.
The combination of quick trucks and veteran experience helped guide the Harvick entries to the one-two finish.
Sprague is in his first season with Kevin Harvick Inc. Clearly Sprague’s been happy with his success early on since joining the team.
“I knew it was good stuff,” Sprague said of joining Harvick’s team. “For the fifth race with a new team and to be that close to winning is pretty impressive I think and I’m pretty proud of that fact.”
By adding Sprague to the field, the team has the two most successful drivers in Craftsman Truck history.
After Hornaday held off Sprague with eight laps to go, it seemed he would be able to pick up his 34th career victory.
Saturday’s race was more about fuel strategy, quick pit stops and avoiding wrecks. The 12 cautions in the race were the most since the Craftsman series came to Kansas Speedway. So when a caution came with four laps to go it came as no surprise.
Hornaday didn’t expect that many cautions on Saturday.
“Last year we went 59 laps under green and had to pit under green,” Hornaday said. “This year with the smaller fuel cells we thought we would have to pit two or three times under green.”
The race had no green flag pit stops.
While the cautions had created headaches for Hornaday’s team almost all day, the final caution allowed him to reach the end without a pit stop.
“We knew we needed about 11 caution laps (after their last pit stop) to make it,” Hornaday’s crew chief Rick Ren said. “When we had that last caution I knew that iced it.”
During the three lap shootout, Hornaday held off Sprague much like he had all day.
The final caution and restart was almost enough for Sprague to get the win. Hornaday won by .14 seconds.
“If I knew he was that good I wouldn’t have let him lead a lap, because he almost got me on the last one,” Hornaday said.
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