Ron Hornaday looked strong and fast in winning his second straight race Saturday in the MemphisTravel.com 200 held at Memphis Motorsports Park in Memphis, Tennessee. He smiled brightly and wrapped his hand quickly around the Elvis Trophy like he was starting to get use to it. Starting on the pole again with a qualifying lap of 117.7 mph, the dominance of his No. 33 Chevrolet was evident from the beginning, and he and his team are surely back at the garage to try to make sure nothing changes with their truck.

Ron Hornaday wins second straight truck race

Hornaday grabbed the lead at the start and never looked like he was going to give it up, until a smart pit stop put Brian Scott briefly in the lead. Scott was able to stay in front of Hornaday for 18 of the next laps, until Hornaday dropped inside of Scott in Turn 1 of Lap 135. The pair raced side by side up the track until they reached Turn 3, when Hornaday was able drive to the inside of a lapped truck and grab the advantage over Scott, who had to try to take the outside lane. In the final analysis Hornaday lead for 180 of the 200 laps, including 108 of the first 114, a truly dominant driving performance that must have his competition worried he’s going to run away with the 2009 season. This third win of the season expands Hornaday’s lead to 76 points over Matt Crafton, gives him 42 career wins in the series, which is tops all-time in the history of the series.

Brian Scott should hold his head high; he had a good race, but lost to the best in the business at the moment, and has a lot to look forward to in the future. He certainly had his problems with lapped traffic that slowed him down, but then this is where the experience and skill come in. Hornaday looked faster all day, and Scott probably wouldn’t have been able to stay in front of Hornaday, even if he hadn’t been slowed by traffic.

David Starr finished third, Aric Almirola fourth, while Matt Crafton finished in fifth position. Mike Skinner took sixth place, Timothy Peters seventh, Johnny Sauter eighth, Colin Brawn ninth, and the top ten was completed by Todd Bodine.

“Image: Zuma Press”

Ron Hornaday will probably be wishing for rain every time he’s scheduled to race at Milwaukee on a Friday night, as re-scheduling the Copart 200 Camping World Truck Series race to Saturday resulted in the Kevin Harvick Inc. racer dominating from start to finish on his 51^st birthday. His truck ran beautifully around the track and appeared to be running a lot better than his competitors, who were having their problems. His crew chief Rick Ren decided to make a few changes after Friday’s practice session that definitely helped improve the truck’s performance and helped lift Hornaday above his competition on Saturday.

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”

Saturday’s running of the NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal was an historic night for the Nationwide Series, and NASCAR in general. As the rainy weather crept its way onto the tracks, the race was red flagged, and for the first time ever in a NASCAR points race, the teams switched over to grooved tires to run the remainder of the race.

The rain was eventually stopped 26 laps short due to poor visibility, and in the end, it was Canadian native, Ron Fellows, out in front of the pack when the race was officially called. Throughout the majority of the race it appeared as though Marcos Ambrose was going to run away with things, leading a race high 27 laps, but a late pit road speeding penalty cost him, and Fellows was there to take advantage.

For Fellows, who was driving the no. 5 entry for the Dale Earnhardt Jr. owned JR Motorsports, it was his fourth career road course victory in 13 Nationwide Series starts, and he also became the first Canadian to ever win a major NASCAR event in Canada.

Fellows was followed to the line by another Canadian native, Patrick Carpentier, who finished 2nd. Ambrose was able to recover from his earlier mistakes on pit road and came back to finish 3rd. 4th place went to Ron Hornaday, and 5th was Boris Said.

Carl Edwards - now 2nd in points - finished 6th, while the series points leader, Clint Bowyer, crossed the finish line in 9th. Brad Keselowski dropped the 2nd position in the points race to Edwards with a 12th place run, dropping Brad down to 3rd overall.

Jacques Villeneuve and Joey Logano dropped about 10 positions in the running order each when they wrecked into other cars during the final caution period.

“I hit a lapped car with no brake lights. I have no idea who it was,” Logano said. “I couldn’t see 5 feet in front of me down the straightaway, under caution. Somebody stopped. I locked up all four and boom! … It’s just not right.”

They each went onto finish 16th and 17th respectively.

It should be noted, however, that the accidents during the final caution were caused by poor visibility, and were not tire-related. In fact, there were really no tire issues the whole race, which should serve as a huge pick-me-up for Goodyear after the debacle that they went through last week at Indy.

Complete Results of the NAPA Auto Parts 200     /     Current Nationwide Series Points Standings

NASCAR veteran, Johnny Benson, held off Ron Hornaday in a two-lap shootout for the checkers to win the Power Stroke Diesel 200 on Friday night at O’Reilly Raceway Park. Hornaday took the lead from polesitter Bobby East back on lap 5 and went onto lead a race high 153 laps before surrendering the lead to the charging Benson on lap 162.

There were a record-tying 11 cautions during the event, the last of which came on lap 195 when Benson’s Bill Davis Racing teammate, Michael Annett, spun while trying to race Rick Crawford for position inside the top-five. The accident setup a restart on lap 198 of the 200 lap race, with Hornaday still running in second. Hornaday attempted a final charge, but he slipped high up on the track, and Benson pulled away for the victory. Hornaday went onto finish 2nd, followed by Erik Darnell, Matt Crafton, and Shelby Howard completing the top-five.

Other Notables:
Kyle Busch finished 8th in the race after stirring up a bit of controversy earlier in the evening, sending Chad McCumbee into the wall back on lap 136 as the two raced for position. Mike Skinner rounded out the top-ten in 10th place. Rick Crawford finished 12th. Hornaday’s Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate, Jack Sprague, was 17th.

Johnny Benson’s victory now opens up a 15 point lead over Hornaday in the points standings. Hornaday jumped past Matt Crafton to take the 2nd spot in the standings as Crafton drops down to 3rd. There were no other changes through the top-six in points. For Benson, the win gave him his second in a row, and his third in the past four weeks.

Complete Power Stroke 200 Results

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Image details: Built Ford Tough 225 served by picapp.com

Johnny Benson won his second race of the season and took the points lead for the first time in 2008 after making a 4-wide pass with just 32 laps remaining in the Built Ford Tough 225 Saturday at Kentucky Speedway. As the field restarted on lap 119, Benson was third in line behind Bill Davis Racing teammate, Michael Annett, and Dennis Setzer, and the lapped truck of Chad Chaffin was on the inside. Benson and Setzer both attempted the pass on Michael Annett at the same time, and Chaffin moved to the bottom of the track as well in an effort to make the pass and get his lap back. In the end, though, it was Benson getting the spot and cruising through the final 32 circuits to pickup the win.

Annett finished second - 0.475 seconds behind Benson - in just his third Craftsman Truck Series start. Matt Crafton finished third, with Setzer in fourth, and David Starr rounded out the top-five finishers. Kyle Busch failed in his bid to get his 15th overall win of the season, as he finished sixth. Mike Skinner, Terry Cook, Marc Mitchell, and Ron Hornaday finished 7th through 10th.

Making his debut for the newly formed Moss Motorsports, Willie Allen started 20th and finished 15th. Jack Sprague’s tough luck this season continued with a 22nd place run after starting 5th. Erik Darnell’s no. 99 Roush-Fenway Ford was caught up in an earlier accident and finished a disappointing 29th. And, in her third Truck Series start, Chrissy Wallace made it through just 50 laps before finding an accident of her own, and she finished 33rd.

Johnny Benson climbed up three spots in the standings to take a 1 point lead over second place, Matt Crafton. Ron Hornaday’s top-ten effort wasn’t enough, as he dropped two spots down to third, where he sits just five points out of first. Rick Crawford and Mike Skinner each moved up a spot to fourth and fifth, respectively.

Complete Ford 225 Results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings:

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):

Image details: Camping World RV Sales 200 served by picapp.com

After losing the race last weekend to Erik Darnell in hearbreaking fashion, Johnny Benson won the Camping World RV Sales 200 at the Milwuakee Mile for the third straight year, also giving he and Bill Davis Racing their first win of the season in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Benson exited the pits with the lead after a caution for light rain on lap 146, and then NASCAR again stopped the race, this time red-flagging it for lightning with only fifty laps remaining. From there, Benson went unchallenged as he raced his way to a 2.5 second win over Matt Crafton, who finished the race in 2nd. Making only his fifth start in the truck series, Landon Cassill finished third, and behind him was last week’s race winner, Erik Darnell.  Todd Bodine finished fifth.

Benson started the race from the pole position and had a 3.3 second lead over Rick Crawford 70 laps into the race when the field began cycling through their green flag pit stops. A caution came out on lap 78 as Benson was pulling out of pit road, and because of the timing, only seven lead lap trucks were scored behind him, with the others being considered the tail end of the lead lap and were placed in front of Benson, including Crawford. Crawford would later regain his track position on a lap 96 caution, and then rallied from 16th to 8th in the closing 56 laps of the race.

Other race notables: Michael Annett made his first start of the season for Bill Davis Racing, and finished 6th; Ron Hornaday dropped another spot in the standings after finishing 7th; Mike Skinner finished 10th; Jack Sprague finished 13th; Making only her 2nd start in the series for Germain Racing, Chrissy Wallace finished 20th.

The victory was the 10th in the series for Johnny Benson, all of which have come in the last 3 seasons, and it opens up a 50 point lead now over 2nd place, Todd Bodine.

Click here for complete Camping World RV Sales race results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings:

It took NASCAR officials a couple of looks to determine the winner of the Cool City Customs 200 Craftsman Truck Series race at Michigan on Saturday, and at the end, they finally determined that Erik Darnell fended off Johnny Benson in a photo finish. The win is the first of the season for Darnell and the second in his career.

A caution flag with six laps remaining bunched the field up for a final restart. Darnell led the field when the green waived with just three to go, with Scott Speed and Benson following behind in 2nd and 3rd. After an exciting side-by-side battle, Benson was able to make the pass on Speed to take over second, and then began working on Darnell. The two battled side-by-side all the way to the finish line, and it was eventually determined that Darnell edged him by mere inches.

Scott Speed went onto finish 3rd, followed by Todd Bodine and Brendan Gaughan to complete the top-five. Kyle Busch - again pulling triple duty this weekend - finished in 7th, and Mike Skinner finished 8th. The Kevin Harvick Inc. duo had a rough weekend. Jack Sprague finished 8 laps down in 30th place, and Ron Hornaday spun out on the final lap, relegating him to 23rd. Hornaday’s disappointing finish dropped him out of the points lead all the way down to third, with Johnny Benson and Todd Bodine each picking up two spots to move into 1st and 2nd.

Check here for the Cool City Customs 200 complete results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings:

Ron Hornaday picked up his 35th career victory in the Craftsman Truck Series on Friday - and, his first at Texas Motor Speedway - as he held off Kyle Busch on a green-white-checkered restart to get the win at the Sam’s Town 400. The restart was setup after rookie, Scott Speed, slammed into the wall with only 2 laps remaining in the scheduled 167-lap event.

Busch had to start in the back of the field because he was not there to qualify his truck himself on Thursday, due to his commitment to run three races over the weekend in three different cities. As the team continually worked on his truck to make it fit Kyle’s style, though, he was able to work his way up to the top-ten after only 53 laps. Busch hadn’t led a lap all night long and trailed Hornaday by more than half a second when the final caution flag came out, but Hornaday pulled away on the restart, and Busch couldn’t capitalize. Kyle will also run the Nationwide race in Nashville on Saturday, and then head back to Pocono for Sunday’s Cup race.

Third place in the race went to the Bill Davis Racing Toyota of Johnny Benson, and Hornaday’s Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate, Jack Sprague, finished fourth. Todd Bodine completed the top-five. Hornaday’s second win of the season was enough to bump him up two spots in the standings, as he now assumes the points lead over Matt Crafton, who finished seventh. Rick Crawford entered Friday’s event with the points lead, but a 21st place finish at Texas has dropped him down to 6th place.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

*Credit photo to Newscom

For the third consecutive week, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series crowned a first-time winner, and this time in came in the form of former F1 Series driver, Scott Speed. In only his sixth career start in the Truck Series, Speed drove away from the field after a late restart in the race, and cruised on into Victory Lane to win the AAA Insurance 200 at Dover, topping his best previous finish, which was 8th at Kansas.

Jack Sprague held off his Kevin Harvick Inc. racing teammate, Ron Hornaday, to finish second, while Travis Kvapil finished fourth, and last week’s race winner, Matt Crafton, finished fifth. Kyle Busch had the dominant car all night long, but transmission troubles sidelined him late in the race, and he went onto finish 27th. Todd Bodine came into the race as the series points leader, but a blown tire that sent him hard into the Turn 3 wall on lap 170 relegated him to a 27th place finish, dropping him four spots in the standings. The points lead was handed over to Rick Crawford after putting together a solid 9th place run.

Speed took the lead of the race when he passed Bodine for the position on lap 150, and opened up a lead of more than 3.5 seconds before the lap 170 caution saw that lead disappear. After the restart on lap 179, Speed ran away from the field, leaving Sprague trailing by more than four seconds before he finally slowed it down on the final lap as he made his way towards Winner’s Circle.

Following the race, Speed, who later revealed that he’d had his toenails painted blue prior to the race, stated, “Today we had a good strategy and an awesome truck, and we got everything we could out of it. The learning curve I’ve had has been amazing. Everytime I go out on the track, I feel I come away with a lot of knowledge. I’m just having an awesome time trying to learn this sport.”

Speed’s victory is the first on the season for Bill Davis Racing, whose camp also consists of veteran drivers, Johnny Benson and Mike Skinner.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):