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Hornaday gets third in a row
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Ron Hornaday celebrates his win at Kentucky (photo by Amanda Vincent)
The Built Ford Tough 225 Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night looked as if it might possibly come down to a battle of rookies, namely Brian Ickler and Tayler Malsam.
A first career Truck Series win wasn’t in the cards for either Ickler or Malsam on Saturday night, neither was a finish near the front for that matter.
Malsam ended up 13th. Ickler finished outside the top-20 in 21st.
In a race that started clean with few cautions, attrition marred later laps. That attrition cost both Ickler and Malsam good finishes, and sent half the field to the garage before the end of the event.
While the younger guys running near the front fell out of the race or to the back of the field due to racing incidents, veterans emerged to race for the win, namely Ron Hornaday, Mike Skinner and Todd Bodine.
Bodine would fall out of that group in the closing laps due to a mechanical failure. That left Hornaday and Skinner to duke it out for the win. Hornaday came out the victor to claim his third-consecutive win. He thought it was the first three-in-a-row for him, but he was soon reminded that he also won three-consecutive races in 1997.
With the win, Hornaday also made Kentucky Speedway history. He became the first driver to repeat as winner in a Camping World Truck Series race at the track. He also became the first pole winner to win a race at Kentucky.
“I’m fortunate,” Hornaday. “Luck is on our side.”
Obviously, Hornaday’s success comes from more than luck, as the points leader is on the road to possibly claim a series leading fourth championship.
Skinner, meanwhile, had to settle for second. He credited the high attrition late in the race for his runner-up finish.
“I think we were going to finish fifth or sixth if we were lucky,” Skinner said.
Matt Crafton, who finished third, also admitted that the high number of trucks falling out of the race helped him post a solid finish.
“We’ve never changed so much on the truck,” Crafton said of his ill-handling vehicle. “Overall, it (his third-place finish) wasn’t a bad night for what we went through.”
While Crafton was happy that he was able to finish third, he was somewhat disappointed with NASCAR for allowing Bodine to stay on track in the closing laps, even though he was putting oil down on the track.
Timothy Peters finished fourth, and Aric Almirola rounded out the top-five.
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