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Hornaday Jr. dominates in Memphis

Sat 28th, June 2008

Memphis, TN (Sports Network) - Ron Hornaday Jr. captured Saturday night's O'Reilly 200 Craftsman Truck Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park in dominating fashion, leading 139 of 204 laps. The No.33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet crossed the finish line 0.269 seconds ahead of Erik Darnell.

The victory was Hornaday Jr.'s third of the season and record 36th of his truck career.

Points leader Johnny Benson led the field to the green flag. The No.23 Toyota quickly built a half-second lead while Bobby East was fighting Hornaday Jr. for second place.

The race lasted seven laps until Todd Bodine and Donny Lia spun to bring out the first caution flag. When they restarted, Benson and Hornaday Jr. took off and by lap 22 had built a two-second margin on third-place Jack Sprague.

A second yellow flag on lap 34 slowed the action.

When the race got going again, Hornaday Jr. bumped Benson to the high side on lap 44 and slid underneath him for the lead.

Another caution flag saw differing strategies take place. Stacy Compton led a group of six trucks to the lead by staying out, while Hornaday Jr. and Benson pitted and returned to the track in seventh and eight-place, respectively.

Hornaday Jr. quickly moved back up the charts and was third on lap 70, just a couple of lengths behind the leaders. Hornaday Jr., with Benson in tow, fought their way past Colin Braun into second place.

The No.33 Chevrolet was right on Compton's rear bumper. He gave him a tap and slid underneath the No.4 for the lead. Benson as he had been doing since the last caution flag, followed through the hole Hornaday Jr. made and took second from Compton.

Following a caution flag, Hornaday Jr. got off to his usual fast start, but Benson's Toyota wouldn't get up to speed. He limped back to his pit, but it had no power. His chance to win was over, but his pit crew tried to fix the problem to get as many points as possible in hopes of keeping the points lead. But it never happened and Benson finished a disappointing 33rd.

At the mid-point of the race, Hornaday Jr. held a four-second lead on Rick Crawford. The man on the move was David Starr who started 17th, but was up to third place.

Hornaday Jr. was cruising along with a big lead when Donny Lia spun on lap 121 to slow the race and erase the lead. So, on the restart, Hornaday Jr. went about rebuilding the margin. More cautions slowed the action, but Hornaday Jr. stayed on top.

Crawford fell from second to third as Erik Darnell grabbed the position with 64 laps to go. While they were battling behind him, Hornaday Jr, was opening up a working margin.

With 50 laps remaining, Hornaday Jr. held 0.826-second lead on Darnell and more than three-second advantage on Crawford. Ten laps later and it looked like a two-man race (there was a five-second gap between second to third) - barring a caution flag. But the inevitable yellow flag came out with 34 laps remaining setting up a short run to the finish.

Hornaday Jr., who had taken the lead with 76 laps on the board, wasn't about to give up the lead. He was still leading on lap 186 when caution flag No.8 came out with 14 laps to go, giving Darnell another shot.

But Hornaday Jr., "known as the "King of Restarts," was ready for this one and he wasn't to be denied. He saw the green flag with nine laps to go and he was gone. The only thing that could slow up Hornaday Jr. was another caution flag and unfortunately it appeared with three laps to go setting up a green- white-checker finish.

But the results of the final two laps were the same as the previous 127. Hornaday Jr. hit the green flag perfectly and saw the white flag with a three- length lead and took the checkered flag without challenge.

Matt Crafton, Rick Crawford and David Starr completed the top-five.

Hornaday Jr.'s win gave him a 27-point lead over Matt Crafton and 54 over Bodine heading to the next race which is set for Saturday, July 19th at Sparta, KY.

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