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Busch gets fifth-straight truck win
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Kyle Busch in the No. 51 truck at Texas Motor Speedway
Four different drivers and teams came into Texas Motor Speedway this weekend for Friday night's WinStar 350 on a mission. Ron Hornaday came in with a firm hold on the top spot in the driver's championship points standings as his Kevin Harvick Inc. team looked to hold on to its lead in the owners' standings.
As far as championships go, Hornaday's mission in Texas was to hold off Matt Crafton, his closest competitor for the driver's title, and Kyle Busch, wheel man for the No. 51 truck of Billy Ballew Motorsports, KHI's closest comptetor for the owner's championship.
In addition to trying to beat Hornaday to help give the Ballew team an owner's title, Busch also was going after his fifth win in his last five starts in the Camping World Truck Series.
Meanwhile, Todd Bodine was going after his sixth win at Texas Motor Speedway.
Bodine may have four Camping World Truck Series wins at Texas Motor Speedway on his racing resume, but Hornaday came into this race as the most recent Texas winner.
As far as these four drivers go, Crafton is the one who got his weekend off to the best possible start by claiming the pole on Thursday for Friday's race.
The race itself came down to a close battle between the four drivers, and they would end up claiming the top-four positions in the finishing order.
That wasn't before some nail biting in the pits over fuel mileage, though. Crews for the top-three trucks were either unsure whether or not their truck would make it or knew that it would be close.
According to the No. 51 crew chief for Richie Wauters, the smaller tapered spacer may very well be an advantage in fuel mileage racers. He said that the smaller tapered spacers on the Toyotas help them get better fuel mileage.
Busch, in that No. 51, was the driver who was most successful in completing his Texas truck mission. He visited victory lane at the end of the night to claim his fifth win in his last five starts and to go undefeated since reuniting with crew chief Wauters.
"That's pretty sweet," Busch said of his undefeated record with Wauters.
With the win, the No. 51 team gained a slight amount of ground on the No. 33 KHI truck in the owners' standings. Crafton finished in the runner-up position to also gain ground on Hornaday in the drivers' standings. With only two races remaining, Crafton trails Hornaday by 197 points.
Hornaday minimized the damage by piloting the No. 33 to a third-place finish. Even so, he wasn't happy with the results from Friday night's event.
"It's not the day we wanted," he said.
Bodine wound up fourth, and Colin Braun rounded out the top-five in his home state of Texas.
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