Ron Hornaday Jr. celebrates his 30th NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win at the Quaker Steak & Lube 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (David M. Vaughn Photo)

Ron Hornaday has never been a big fan of Lowe's Motor Speedway. Prior to tonight, he'd never won at the track just outside of Charlotte, N.C., and he's always found the track's well-worn surface to be a challenge.

All that changed after a smokey burnout into Victory Lane as Hornaday claimed his 30th career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win in the Quaker Steak and Lube 200. Hornaday, in his newly-sponsored No. 33 Camping Word Chevrolet out of the Kevin Harvick, Inc. shop, was the dominant driver on the night leading three times for a total of 98 laps on his way to his first win of the 2007 season.

While Hornaday was the man up front all night long, he was forced to hold off a resurgent A.J. Allmendinger on a two-lap dash to the checkered following a crash involving the winner of the last series event at Kansas Erik Darnell. Allmendinger pressed the two-time series champion over the final three miles, but the Palmdale, California native crossed the line 0.244 seconds ahead of the former Champ Car World Series standout.

"I can't believe it, a win at Charlotte Motor Speedway," Hornaday said in victory lane. "I just never liked this place. They finally took the bumps out of it and it started to suit my driving style a little. I won a lot of races before in blue and yellow trucks, and it's nice to get this one into victory lane here in Charlotte.

"We showed up here at the test and could have almost thrown everything at it," Hornaday continued. "We tested Kevin's truck for him and his was a little looser than this truck, so we let him run that one. When my wife and I looked at the truck and saw it was blue and yellow, we were pretty happy. We won a lot of races in trucks that color."

Ron Hornaday Jr. waves the checkered flag at the Quaker Steak & Lube 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (David M. Vaughn Photo)

While Hornaday was celebrating his victory, Allmendinger was jubilant with his runner-up finish. Earlier in the day, a spin off turn four damaged the nose of the No. 00 Aaron's Lucky Dog Toyota, forcing his crew to mount a new front splitter. After all the hard work, Allmendinger rewarded his team with a second-place finish.

A gutsy pit call on the final round of pit stops put Allmendinger into the lead. With the leaders all taking four tires on their final stop, Allmendinger only took two and jumped to the lead. He was able to hold off Hornaday for a handful of laps after the restart, but a slight wiggle opened the door and allowed Hornaday to pass.

"I don't think I could have caught Ron at the end," Allmendinger said. "It's a shame Johnny (Benson) had his problems because we were having a good race there for second there. These guys worked hard to get the truck back together after the incident and practice. It's a real testament to those guys.

"We had an awesome truck, but Ron was just a tick better," Allmendinger said. "His was good getting in, and mine was good getting off the corners. If he would have made a mistake I would have been all over him."

Todd Bodine ran up front all night long and came home third in the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota.

"That was a nice consistent run," Bodine said. "We didn't have a truck that could win, but we did the best we could with it. That's what we need to do over the next six weeks. We don't need to get involved in problems on the track or have problems on pit road. If we have a tenth place truck, we need to finish tenth with it rather than crash it trying to win. If we can do that, we'll have a shot to run for the championship."

The event was slowed by seven caution flags, several of which were for hard crashes involving drivers running at the front.

Jack Sprague was running in second on lap 37 when a right front tire went down entering turn three, sending him directly into the turn three wall nearly at full speed. Sprague's truck was severely damaged, but he climbed out uninjured.

"I blew a right front. I must have run over something," Sprague said. "I knew it would be good but not that good. I was cruising along there and we blew a right front going into three. The bottom line is we run good every week. But Charlotte's just not that kind to me."

Later, on lap 124, another driver running in second position found problems in the same area of the track. Johnny Benson also lost a right front tire in turn four, slamming the wall and ending his night early.

"These Goodyear tires are great, until they lose the air in them," Benson said after being released from the care center. "It's a shame because it looked like we could have finished second there pretty easily. The guys built me a brand new truck and it's a shame to have it end this way."

Mark Martin made his second series start of the year and finished in the fourth position in the No. 21 Bubba Burger Ford, and 2005 series champion Ted Musgrave was fifth in the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota. Mike Bliss, Matt Crafton, pole starter Mike Skinner, T.J. Bell, and Rick Crawford rounded out the top ten finishers.

Skinner continues to unofficially lead the points with 1,052 over Bodine in second with 967. Hornaday, Crawford and Musgrave round out the top five heading into next weekend's Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Park.