Ron Hornaday Wins at Mansfield in Chevy Silverado
Silverado Drivers Bring Home Four of Top-10 Finishing Positions: Chevrolet Closes Gap in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Manufacturer's Standings.

Ron Hornaday, No. 33 Kevin Harvick, Inc. Silverado, scored his first victory of the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) season at the City of Mansfield 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. The win was the second consecutive NCTS victory for Team Chevy Silverado. Silverado drivers captured four of the top-10 finishing positions. Matt Crafton, No. 88 Menards Silverado was sixth followed by Dennis Setzer, No. 85 E85 FlexFuel Silverado in seventh and Mike Bliss, No. 16 IWX/Xpress Motorsports Silverado in eighth.

The two-time NCTS champion led 131 of the 250 laps on the way to his 28th victory in the highly competitive series. Hornaday is the all-time leader in the Series' win column and holds numerous other records in his 157 NCTS starts.

The race was slowed by 18 caution flags for 83 laps.

Hornaday was followed to the checkered flag by Jack Sprague (Toyota), David Starr (Toyota), Johnny Benson (Toyota) and Joey Miller (Toyota).

Manufacturer's points standing following today's race, round seven of the 25-race 2006 NCTS season are:

• Toyota 49 points (3 wins)
• Ford 43 points (2 wins)
• Chevrolet 36 points (2 wins)
• Dodge 24 points (0 wins)

The next race for the NCTS is at Dover International Speedway, Dover, DE on Friday, June 2, 2006.

Ron Hornaday, No. 33 Kevin Harvick, Inc. Silverado, Started 17th, Finished 1st:
"We were pretty decent on Thursday, but we weren't really great, and then Wally and Todd flew up and the four of them put their heads together, and made this Silverado do well. We lost Ami Mischler on Saturday night, and she was 21 years old and did all of our travel and everything, so I want to dedicate this win to her. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and T.J. Clark lost his son, Spence, coming back from North Carolina. They were taking a brand new race car home, and he was an up and coming driver. The kid lived across the street from me, and it is just so hard to explain what it means to me go to victory lane, and to say praise to all the guys overseas that are losing their lives, and all the guys at home. I want to thank Kevin and DeLana for believing in me, and Rick Carelli and all these guys. What an awesome day!"

"My guys did a great job today, I am so proud of them. We just had to be patient getting to the front. Once I got out front, I knew my Chevy Silverado was stout enough to stay there. I wasn't worried about Jack (Sprague) or David (Starr) behind me because Stacy (Johnson, crew chief) and the guys just did an excellent job calling the race and on pit road. It is just a great day and I couldn't be happier for our whole team."

"It was tough to pass out there and hard to get a rhythm going with all of the cautions but once I got out front, we hardly ever had enough laps to catch and start lapping guys. I race because I love it and this is what I want to do. Racing here in the NASCAR Truck Series is the best racing out there."

Matt Crafton, No. 88 Menards/Energizer Silverado, Started 10th,Finished 6th:
"My truck was horrible on restarts and took eight or 10 laps to get going. Once we did, we were one of the fasted guys on the track but just couldn't get any long runs with all the caution flags. My guys did an awesome job; they brought me a great truck. We really had a solid top-five truck if we could have had some longer runs. Congratulations to Ron (Hornaday) and his crew on their win for Chevy Silverado. Another top-10 for us so we are getting a good rhythm started."

Dennis Setzer, No. 85 E85 FlexFuel Silverado, Started 8th, Finished 7th:
"We just couldn't pass here, you have to be a lot better if you want to pass here. If you are just a little off, you cannot pass. I am not sure if all of the yellow flags were a bad or a good thing, the same for everyone on that. It was just hard to pass, just tough."

Mike Bliss, No. 16 IWX/Xpress Motorsports Silverado, Started12th, Finished 8th:
"It was a joke. I think we had more yellows than we did green flags. That is pretty bad. We've had a pretty good truck all weekend, we had so many yellows, we couldn't get more than a ten lap run, and that just doesn't work. It is frustrating; I know we had a truck that was capable of a win. No one could pass, so they just moved them out of the way, and pit strategy for those guys up front was the way to go."
 
Aric Almirola, No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Silverado, Started 18th, Finished 30th:
Note: Almirola made contact with another truck on lap 162 of the 250 lap race damaging the toe-in on the truck. Repairs were made and Almirola returned to action 20 laps down to the leaders. "We had a pretty decent truck. I got in a little fender bender early in the race but it didn't do anything really but wrinkle the hood on my Silverado a little bit. We stayed in the top-10 for a long time until pit stops started to jumble the order, but we were working our way back through the field when the No. 5 and I got together and it hurt the truck quite a bit. I am proud of how hard the guys worked to get me back out on the track. We just had such a good truck it is disappointing for all of us."

Kraig Kinser, No. 46 CENTRIX Auto Finance Silverado, Started 23rd, Finished 35th:
Note: Kinser lost the rearend gear on 162 and was unable to continue in the race. "It is just disappointing for everyone on our CENTRIX Silverado team. Short track racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is tough and there was a lot of beatin and bangin out there but I felt like I was really getting a good rhythm. We had a flat tire with about 30 laps to go and I headed down pit road, I was over the line and went to back up and I couldn't get it in gear to back up. We lost the rearend gear and there was no way they guys could get it fixed. For some reason we had we two flat tires early in the race and lost some track position but I feel like I learned a lot."