Ron Hornaday will be working with a few new team members next year

Kevin Harvick Inc has decided that Dave Fuge and Doug George will be part of their Truck Series program for 2010. Dave Fuge will be in charge of making sure the No. 33 Chevrolet of four-time Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday is ready to go before each race, while Doug George will be the new crew chief of the No. 2 Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc. Rumours have been spreading like wildfire that the No. 2 Chevrolet will feature several Sprint Cup series drivers behind the wheel for 2010, which should make for a few interesting races, when one of them is behind the wheel.

Fuge is from Sumner, Washington, while Doug George is from Atwater, California, and Ernie Cope, crew chief for the No. 33 Nationwide Series program for KHI, hails from Tacoma, Washington. All three of the crew chiefs of KHI will therefore be from the west coast of America, along with Kevin Harvick himself, general manager for KHI, Rick Carelli, and Ron Hornaday himself.

Dave and Doug have proven skills and experience in the Trucking Series which will definitely help the team and bring much needed experience and mental strength to the team. It will be interesting to see if the chemistry between these six west coast boys will work and the team will be even better in 2010, than they have done separately in their careers. In fact, Fuge brings the experience of a two-time Truck Series championship team owner he gained while working with Xpress Motorsports in 2002 and 2003, and the ability to manage drivers like Mike Bliss and Travis Kvapil.

All of these six men have achieved great things on the track and they’ll be looking to do even better together, which will make for an interesting year on the track and should give the other teams and drivers competing in NASCAR’s Trucking Series a little scare. The KHI team and members really only have one way to go and that’s up, so you can expect them to be competitive next year and maybe in the lead at the end of the season.

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Kevin Harvick Inc Hires New Team Members

Kyle Busch wins his third straight truck race

Harvick after the race stated that Hornaday’s failure to let him move past him during the closing laps prevented him from using his faster truck to catch Kyle Busch. He attributed this to lack of communication between crew chiefs and spotters and you can be sure he’s straightening this out, right now.

Kyle Busch said he wasn’t sure if he would have enough fuel after his brief stop, but decided to put the his foot down and see how far his car would make it. He made it over the line just .560 seconds ahead of Hornaday and ran out of gas as he was driving into Victory Lane to receive his rewards. This gamble allowed Busch to take the win when Hornaday took to long in pit row adding additional fuel.

Hornaday and Harvick were actually the dominant trucks all day long, but when Hornaday failed to respond to Harvick’s desire to get past him, Harvick was done. The heat between team owner and Hornaday appeared to be rising after the race as Harvick stormed over to Hornaday’s truck after the race and apparently had a little talk with his fellow racer and employee.

Hornaday stared after the race that communication problems definitely played a part in his two trucks not winning the race and they’ll work out the problems so this hopefully doesn’t happen again.

This was hardly a bad day for Harvick and his team, they still finished second and third, and he still leads in the series standings by 217 points over Crafton. Crafton for his part was obviously making an effort to race clean after last week’s race at Gateway that saw him getting black flagged. He did finish fourth, but never really challenged for the win.

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Kyle Busch Wins the Heluva Good! 200

Mike Skinner wins the Copart 200

Events turned a little unfortunate for the first and second place trucks as they were taken out of the race in back to back restarts with just ten laps remaining in the Copart 200 in incidents with Matt Crafton. During the first restart, Crafton was third, but decided to jump inside of Todd Bodine, who started second during the restart. The two racers approached Turn 1 together, but Bodine’s Toyota turned in and contacted Crafton’s Chevrolet as they went into Turn 1. The contract made Bodine’s car do a spin on the pit lane exit ramp and fly across the track and hit the outside wall. His car hit the race cars of Colin Braun and Rick Crawford, essentially taking them out of the now red flagged race.

During the second restart, Crafton was second behind Ron Hornaday on the grid. He followed Hornaday into the first corner and when Hornaday turned Crafton was inside of Hornaday and contacted the left rear tire of Hornaday’s Chevrolet. This caused Hornaday to spin and back into the outside wall, where he was hit by Jason Young’s race car. This caused the race to once again be red flagged, with Crafton in the lead, but Crafton was subsequently black flagged by NASCAR for overly aggressive driving and the lead was given to Skinner. Crafton being black flagged also moved Johnny Sauter up to second and Brian Scott into third place. Being black flagged meant that Crafton had to restart at the back of the pack and he became the last truck at the back of the grid. Crafton was jeered and cheered as he was forced to drive down pit lane to serve his penalty.

These events allowed Mike Skinner to hold off his competitors during the green-white-checkered flag finish and cross the finish line .285 seconds ahead of Johnny Sauter in a 162 lap race that was two laps longer than scheduled.

Brian Scott finished third in the Copart 200, just ahead of Aric Almirola, Tayler Malsam and Matt Crafton. Timothy Peters finished seventh in his Toyota, Stacy Compton was eighth, Ryan Sieg ninth, and the top ten was rounded out by Rick Crawford.

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Mike Skinner Wins the Copart 200

Kyle Busch is winning in a truck now!

This was a special night for Busch because his parents and girl friend are from just over the border in Indiana. It must have been really cool and nice to come back and win before the home folks in the Midwest.

Bodine took the lead on Lap 98 after Busch made a final pit stop for tires and fuel and after the final restart with just 50 laps remaining he found himself in fifth place. Bodine looked like he was going to win, until the caution flag came out and things started to go bad back for him. There was another restart three laps later that was single file that left a hole on the bottom of the 1.5 mile track for Busch to take advantage of and that’s exactly what he did. Busch stayed on the bottom of the track through Turns 1 and 2 and then was able to pass Bodine as they headed into Turn 3. He was faster through the sprint to the finish and was able to beat Bodine to the line by .580 seconds for the win in the EnjoyIllinois.com 225. This victory marks a great day for Kyle Busch, who probably likes this truck-thing, and a not so nice day for Todd Bodine.

Colin Braun finished third; Rick Crawford managed fourth, while Johnny Sauter held on for fifth place. In sixth place was Dennis Setzer, Chad McCumbee ran seventh, Aric Almirola eighth and Timothy Peters ninth, while Terry Cook rounded out the top ten.

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Kyle Busch Wins the EnjoyIllinois.com 225

Ron Hornaday wins the Built Ford Tough 225 World Camping Truck Series competition

Ron Hornaday has been running hot and fast on the Camping World Truck Series lately. Saturday night he continued his winning ways on the series by taking his third consecutive victory in the Camping World Truck Series Built Ford Tough 225 held at Kentucky Speedway. This win is the fourth of the Camping World Truck Series for Hornaday and extends his overall lead in the series over second place racer Matt Crafton to 96 points. Hornaday was patient and waited for his moment

and then with 24 laps remaining he made his move. The race had to be restarted on lap 127 of this 150-lap competition on a 1.5

mile track that has seen its share of winners and losers. Hornaday’s crew chief made a few more changes during this stop to fine tune a few things he had started tinkering with during the last pit stop and the changes made a difference as Hornaday’s truck was definitely faster after the last stop. Hornaday restarted sixth after the restart and used his racing ability and faster truck to pass Tayler

Malsam on the inside of Turn 2 and then Aric Almirola on the inside of Turn 4 to move into the lead with just 18 laps left in the Built Ford Tough 225.

Mike Skinner stayed close to the leaders in front of him until he saw his opportunity. He was able to pass his Randy Moss Motorsports teammate Malsam with just nine laps remaining and then lady luck helped him out when Todd Bodine had mechanical problems that allowed him to move into second place. Pulling close to Hornaday with just two turns left, he made his attempt to pass, but was unable to get past him on the outside.

Matt Crafton finished third in his Chevrolet, Timothy Peters managed to hang on for fourth, and Aric Almirola took fifth, while Brian Scott finished sixth. Ricky Carmichael had a good race and despite having a car that seemed slow, he managed seventh place, James Buescher finished eighth, David Starr ninth, and Dennis Setzer rounded out the top ten in the Camping World Series Built Ford Tough 225.

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Ron Hornaday Wins the Built Ford Tough 225

There were over 20,000 empty seats during the LifeLock.com 400

Why are fans deciding to skip NASCAR events like last Saturday’s LifeLock.com 400 Sprint Cup competition and staying home instead? Apparently, since the Chicagoland Speedway opened in 2001 it hasn’t made available for sale any single-day tickets to events such as the LifeLock.om 400. Instead fans have only been able to buy what is called a track pack, which gives them access to the Indy Lights and IndyCar races, as well as the Nationwide Series race, Camping World Truck Series race, and ARCA ReMax event.

This fact combined with the current economic conditions around the world could have a lot to do with the 20,000 seats in the stands last Saturday. They should probably think about going to a season-ticket setup for fanatical fans who want to go to every race or maybe even a seat license might be a good way to go. They could always sell single tickets to individual events and which makes sense considering the economic climate.

In response, Mr. Rust has been talking about making sweeping changes to the way tickets are being sold to race fans who want to attend NASCAR events at Chicagoland Speedway. He hasn’t given any specifics on planned changes, but the buzz is that this guy knows his business, so it’s expected that the fans will be back in the seats shortly.

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Chicagoland Speedway Gets a New Boss

Ron Hornaday wins the Copart 200

Truly a cool day for this young-at-heart competitor, who when asked about his age commented, “I’m in my 50s, now, I guess.”

The victory was the 41^st career Camping World Truck win for Hornaday and his second win of the 2009 Camping World Truck Series and at Milwaukee, where he won in 1997. Ron was in front of the pack for 180 of the scheduled 200 laps around Milwaukee and he was one second ahead of second place finisher Dennis Setzer at the end.

The race started with Hornaday grabbing the lead from Matt Crafton on the third lap and then increasing his lead with every lap, until Aric Almirola’s disastrous spin on lap 127. Hornaday used the caution provided by Aric’s spin to pit and prepare his No. 33 Chevrolet to run the final laps. Hornaday was fast enough to stay on the lead lap after his pit and then when the seven racers in the lead pitted, Hornaday was back in the lead.

Hornaday continued to lead until a late caution flag brought the field back together for a restart with only 8 laps remaining in the race. He jumped ahead after the green flag fell and stayed ahead of Dennis Seltzer for the final 8 of laps. This win puts Hornaday 36 points ahead of Crafton for the series lead, with half the season left to go.

Brian Scott finished third in the Copart 200, Todd Bodine took fourth, and James Buescher was able to finish fifth. Stacy Compton finished sixth, Tayler Malsam took seventh place, Colin Braun was able to take eighth, David Starr was in ninth, and the top ten was rounded out by Terry Cook in his Toyota.

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Hornaday Wins Copart 200