High Sierra Photo

Kyle Busch is a big fan of the movie Days of Thunder, so much so that he painted his No. 51 National Land Liquidators Chevrolet to look just like the car of his favorite character, Rowdy Burns. Rowdy Busch came back to the scene of his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win and backed it up with his second straight win in the Quaker Steak and Lube 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Busch, who was forced to a backup truck after a crash in a test session on Thursday, started from the 20th position and charged virtually unimpeded through the field and was in the top ten within the first 25 laps. Busch took the lead for the first time on lap 37 and made a shambles of the field from then on, only losing the lead on pit stops.

"I can't thank Billy Ballew enough for letting me come and race his truck," Busch said in victory lane. "We had a tire go down in the test yesterday and lost our primary truck. The guys worked hard to get this truck as good as the primary was. We scuffed the side of this one in the test yesterday too, and they took that setup right out of it and put in the one from the primary and it really worked well."

Busch said he had no problems at all working his way through the field.

"We really didn't have any problems at all working our way through the pack," the winner said. "The first accident was a close call, a real "Days of Thunder moment". But we weaved our way through it. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful night."

Race winner Kyle Busch left the track in a cloud of smoke to celebrate his victory. (Jenna Wolford/High Sierra Photo)

For the second consecutive year, Busch beat Terry Cook's No. 10 Power Stroke Diesel Ford to the stripe. Cook's team made a gutsy call to take just right side tires on his final pit stop, and it paid off as track position allowed him to race with the leader the rest of the way.

"I pretty much knew we were racing for second as soon as that 51 truck went blasting past us," Cook joked afterward. "We dug ourselves into a bit of a whole aero-wise early in the season, but Dennis (Connor, crew chief) cut the bodies off and went to work making them right. We brought a new truck here last year and finished second with it, and we debuted a new truck here this year and did the same thing. I hope it's a great start to this stretch of races like it was last year too."

Cook finished just in front of Germain Racing teammates Todd Bodine and Ted Musgrave. Ron Hornaday rounded out the top-five finishers.

"I didn't think we would run this good after the way we ran yesterday," Bodine said. "We made some pretty radical changes this morning. If we started off with that setup yesterday during the test, I think we could have adjusted on it and been able to run for the win here tonight."

Musgrave continued his streak of top-four finishes in 2006. Musgrave had a strong truck, but pressure build up in the right front wouldn't let him get up and race for his first win of the season.

"We still haven't been outside the top-four yet," he said. "We were big picture racing. Terry's truck was a little bit better. We didn't change tires all night tonight and we built up a little too much pressure in the right front. I wasn't going to hold him up too much if he was better, and he was. I saw Todd back there too, and if he had a shot to win I wanted to let him get up there and go for it."

Hornaday's fifth-place finish is his best run of the 2006 season. Hornaday had some help this week from 2005 championship crew chief Gene Nead, and he credits the help of the entire Kevin Harvick, Inc. team in getting him to the front.

"We had Gene over here and Wally Rogers, and I have to thank them for coming over because they really made this truck run," Hornaday said. "I literally thought we were at the halfway break when the race ended. I am ready to go another 130 laps. It was an awesome truck tonight and I can't wait to drive it again."

David Reutimann (17) battles with eventual race winner Kyle Busch. (Whitney Nantz/High Sierra Photo)

David Reutimann finished sixth, in front of Dennis Setzer in seventh, Matt Crafton in eighth, Aric Almirola in ninth, and Erik Darnell in tenth.

Pole sitter Mike Skinner was the only driver other than Busch to lead, leading 38 laps on the night. Skinner's night was soured by distributor troubles that relegated him to a 31st-place finish.

The race was remarkably clean after an eventful day of testing yesterday and several incidents in practice and qualifying this afternoon. There were six cautions for 26 laps, and the most significant incident of the night came on lap four when Marcos Ambrose got loose in turn four and socked the wall. In the aftermath, Jack Sprague went spinning and Mike Bliss kissed the wall trying to avoid.

There were a total of five lead changes among two drivers. The race ran at a record 124.845 mile per hour average speed, and Busch's margin of victory was 3.154 seconds.

Bodine leads Musgrave in the championship standings by 17 points heading into round seven of the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the City of Mansfield 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway on May 27. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage starting on Thursday as the teams take to the track for an optional test session. Official practice and qualifying will come your way on Friday, with the 250-lap short track clash coming at you on Saturday. TruckSeries.com will have extensive TrackSideLive! coverage all three days.