FORT WORTH, Texas (June 11, 2011) — Ron Hornaday and the No. 33 Kroger/IAMS Chevrolet Silverado team captured their first victory of the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season on Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. The four-time champion piloted a fast Chevrolet, running among the top five for the majority of the event, before being in the right place at the right time on the final restart.
The Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) Chevrolet started the 167-lap event in the 13th position. Hornaday was fast from the drop of the green flag, charging to the front of the field.
The first yellow flag waved during the caution-filled event on lap seven. The field quickly restarted with Hornaday sitting in the 10th position. Before the second caution on lap 23, the veteran driver had picked up eight positions. Hornaday reported being a little tight when running behind his competitors. On lap 24, the KHI team brought the No. 33 Chevrolet down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air-pressure adjustment.
Hornaday rejoined the field on lap 26, in the fifth position. By lap 30 Hornaday had picked up two positions and was quickly running down the leaders.
The third yellow flag waved on lap 52 when two trucks made contact in turn two. Hornaday relayed to the team he needed both front and rear grip as the No. 33 Kroger/IAMS machine was loose getting in and tight in the middle of the corners. The leaders came down pit road with most of the teams electing to take fuel only. Crew chief Jeff Hensley made the call to give the truck four tires, fuel and an air-pressure adjustment to help with the handling of the truck.
The team was ready for the restart on lap 56 sitting in 11th place. When the yellow flag waved on lap 60 for the fourth time, the driver had gained five positions and was ready for the quick restart on lap 62. Just as the field regained full speed, the race was slowed again for a caution period on lap 68. Hensley used the caution as an opportunity to bring the Kroger/IAMS Chevrolet down pit road for a fuel-only stop on lap 69 and put Hornaday in the ninth position for the lap 72 restart.
By the sixth caution flag of the night on lap 90, the team had picked up five positions and was running in the fourth position. Hornaday reported that his truck was the best that it had been since the race began but was still loose getting into the corners. The top-three in the field chose to come down pit road for a fuel-only stop. Hornaday and the KHI team opted to stay on track, placing the No. 33 in the lead when green-flag racing resumed.
With guidance from spotter Rick Carelli, Hornaday chose to restart on the outside, next to the second-place truck of Johnny Sauter on lap 95. Sauter quickly took back over the lead at lap 99 moving the No. 33 truck into the second position. With a tight-handling truck, Hornaday dropped a few positions further and was in the fourth place when the caution flag once again came out on lap 112. The Kroger/IAMS team brought Hornaday down pit road for the night’s final adjustments. Restarting in the fifth-position on lap 116 the KHI Chevrolet was the first truck with a set of four fresh tires as the trucks roared back to speed around the 1.5-mile track.
Just as the field settled back into green-flag racing, a spin on the frontstretch on lap 119 brought out the eighth caution of the night. Hornaday had picked up three positions by the time of caution and was sitting in second-position. With the race leader electing to make a stop on pit road, Hornaday moved into the lead for the lap 122 restart.
For the next eight laps, Hornaday led the field with Sauter on his rear bumper. Hornaday was shuffled to the second-position as the ninth caution period of the race came on lap 138. Back under green-flag conditions, the No. 33 resumed its battle with Sauter for the lead. The final caution flag waved on lap 162 causing the race to finish under green-white-checker conditions.
Hornaday took the last restart of the night from the second position racing behind Sauter who changed lanes right as the green waved. NASCAR black flagged Sauter for the rule violation paving the way for Hornaday to take home his third win at Texas and his first of the 2011 season. The victory is the second for KHI this season. Clint Bowyer and the No. 2 team took home the win last weekend at Kansas Speedway. The win moves the No. 33 team up two positions in the Driver’s Point
standings to third, 33 points out of first.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will return to action at Kentucky Speedway on July 7 for the UNOH 225. Watch the action live on SPEED at 8 p.m. EST.
Comments from driver Ron Hornaday:
“As long as we were in clean air we were pretty decent. I think we had a third or fifth-place truck but it just worked out for us in the end.
“With Jeff Hensley on board and part of this No. 33 KHI program our confidence has been really high. We’ve had a little bad luck the last couple of weeks that has put us behind but overall we have been running really well. We are going to keep on digging and keep on driving for five.”
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