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.

“Image: Zuma Press”

Post from: EveryJoe

Mike Skinner Wins the Copart 200

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.

“Image: Zuma Press”

Post from: EveryJoe

Hornaday Wins Copart 200