Ron Hornaday, Jr. Continues March to Championship with Third Place Finish
at Texas; Matt Crafton Scores Runner-Up Finish to Remain Second in
Standings with Two Races Remaining
FT. WORTH - Ron Hornaday, Jr., No. 33 VFW Silverado, continued his march
to become the first four-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion
with a solid third-place finish at Texas. He holds a 197 point lead over
fellow Team Chevy driver Matt Crafton.
Crafton, who started on the pole for tonight's race, finished second in
the 147-lap/220.5-mile/350K WinStar World Casion 350 at Texas Motor
Speedway.
Johnny Sauter, No. 13 Fun Sand/Rio Grand/Curb Records Silverado finished
sixth to give Team Chevy three of the top-10 finishers in tonight's race.
Kyle Busch (Toyota) was the race winner with Todd Bodine (Toyota) and
Colin Braun (Ford) completing the top-five finishers.
The next race for the NCWTS will be November 13 at Phoenix International
Raceway.
***
MATT CRAFTON, NO. 88 MENARDS/MCGUIRE-NICHOLAS SILVERADO, FINISHED 2ND:
LOOKED LIKE THE CHEVROLETS WERE NERVOUS ABOUT FUEL AT THE END BUT IT
SEEMED YOU GUYS WENT FOR THE WIN, DESCRIBE THOSE LAST FEW LAPS:
"Yeah we were saving fuel, saving fuel and then finally I think it
was like 12 to go and they said 'go get him' and we actually
started running him down there in the end and I think we waited too long
to catch him but we might have run out of gas if we had taken off
earlier.
"These guys brought an awesome race truck and I can't think
them enough. It was an awesome truck, I mean my gosh I don't know
what we have to do to get one of these wins. Maybe lock Kyle up in his
motorhome or something. He was good tonight but I think my Silverado in
clean air was probably the best truck and as good as anybody.
"And like I said I can't thank these guys enough, thank
Menards and thank Duke and Rhonda Thorson."
***
RON HORNADAY, JR., NO. 33 VFW SILVERADO, FINISHED 3RD:
HOW WAS YOUR TRUCK
TOWARD THE END OF THE RUN? "It was loose. Kyle (Busch) was no help,
lifting me up down the backstretch and got me sideways going in to three.
That is the way we race. We'll take a top-three and come out of
here. The VFW Chevrolet was very good tonight. We tried a strategy with
tires and we might have done something to these to make them mad in
practice. We will figure it out and go on to the next two.
"It was a great run for the VFW Chevrolet. It is not the way we
wanted to finish. Kyle lifted me up pretty good down the back
straightaway. The bumper is bent in pretty good. It is hard to race
somebody that doesn't make a living at it and doesn't care
about points. It is tough. That made my tires mad in three and four. I
don't think I could hold (Matt) Crafton off, he had a very good
truck tonight. We will take what we can get and go on to the next two.
"It was locked on me. It happened twice. Down the back
straightaway. I wish you guys would take a picture of the rear bumper
cover because it was...not once, twice but three times, I was
sideways down the back straightaway. I felt like it was Talladega all
over again. Got down in there and he just sucked me around so. Good save,
but it is not the day we wanted. Top-three coming out of Texas is pretty
good because we usually win or something happens here and we finally came
out with a top-three so we will take this Chevrolet and move on to the
next two."
HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT CHAMPIONSHIP WITH TWO RACES TO GO? "It
isn't a championship; it is just a race right now. We have two more
to go and we are just going to race as hard as we can. Racing...we
just need to win the next two."
-credit: gm racing
