Hornaday Dominates Memphis; Takes Points Lead
June 29, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
Image details: O’Reilly 200 served by picapp.com
Ron Hornaday started Saturday night’s O’Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park from the third position, but took the lead on lap 76 of the scheduled 200-lap race, and overcame a green-white-checkered finish to lead the final 129 laps and 139 laps overall to pick up his third win of the season for Kevin Harvick Inc. in the Craftsman Truck Series. In doing so, Hornaday also jumped up three spots in the rankings, moving past Johnny Benson, Todd Bodine, and Matt Crafton, to take over the top spot in the standings. It also extended Hornaday’s all-time record in the series to 36 career victories.
Hornaday took the lead on lap 76 as he battled side-by-side with Johnny Benson, and the two passed then-race leader Stacy Compton to take the position. On the next restart just seven laps later, however, Benson’s truck didn’t accelerate, and he was forced to retire for the day with a blown engine, finishing 33rd after leading 43 laps in the early goings.
Hornaday then held off Erik Darnell on the final restart of the evening to pickup the win. Darnell finished 2nd, giving him three consecutive top-five finishes now for Roush-Fenway Racing, and moving him up to 7th in points. Matt Crafton, Rick Crawford, and David Starr rounded out the top-five finishers, with Hornaday’s teammate, Jack Sprague, finishing 6th.
Following the race, Hornaday told reporters, “Benson had the truck to beat. He needed to break for us to win. I don’t know if we want to be in the points lead. Everybody who gets in it seems to have problems.”
Click here for the O’Reilly 200 Complete Results.
Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):
| RANK |
+/- |
DRIVER |
POINTS |
BEHIND |
STARTS |
POLES |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
| 1 |
+3 |
Ron Hornaday |
1742 |
Leader |
12 |
2 |
3 |
6 |
8 |
| 2 |
+1 |
Matt Crafton |
1715 |
-27 |
12 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
7 |
| 3 |
-1 |
Todd Bodine |
1688 |
-54 |
12 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
7 |
| 4 |
-3 |
Johnny Benson |
1686 |
-56 |
12 |
3 |
1 |
6 |
8 |
| 5 |
– |
Rick Crawford |
1668 |
-74 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
| 6 |
– |
Mike Skinner |
1629 |
-113 |
12 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
10 |
| 7 |
+1 |
Erik Darnell |
1605 |
-137 |
12 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
| 8 |
+1 |
Jack Sprague |
1578 |
-164 |
12 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
6 |
| 9 |
-2 |
Terry Cook |
1553 |
-189 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
| 10 |
– |
Chad McCumbee |
1514 |
-228 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
| 11 |
– |
Dennis Setzer |
1494 |
-248 |
12 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| 12 |
– |
David Starr |
1479 |
-263 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
| 13 |
– |
Brendan Gaughan |
1412 |
-330 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
| 14 |
+1 |
Ted Musgrave |
1350 |
-392 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| 15 |
-1 |
Colin Braun* |
1346 |
-396 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
| 16 |
+2 |
Shelby Howard |
1281 |
-461 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 17 |
– |
Justin Marks* |
1280 |
-462 |
12 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 18 |
+1 |
Donny Lia* |
1231 |
-511 |
11 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| 19 |
+1 |
Stacy Compton |
1227 |
-515 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| 20 |
-4 |
Kyle Busch |
1205 |
-537 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
6 |
