Ron Hornaday waves checkered flag at Texas (Ronda Greer/NASCAR Photo)

After three consecutive first-time winners in the last three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, the usual suspects reasserted themselves Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, as defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. captured the Sam's Town 400.

Hornaday and his Kevin Harvick Inc.-owned Camping World Chevrolet held off Kyle Busch's Miccosukee Resorts Toyota through a green-white-checkered finish. Johnny Benson finished third in his Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra, ahead of Jack Sprague's Road Loans Chevy.

"All these years, all these races that he's dominated, but it was the first time he won (at Texas)," said Hornaday's crew chief, Rick Ren after seeing the three-time NCTS champ win his 35th race of his career and retake the points lead."

It was a typically wild night at Texas Motor Speedway, with the race going to overtime for the fifth consecutive time at the 1.5-mile facility.

Pole-sitter Justin Marks took the lead at the start in his Construct Corps Toyota, but on Lap 2 he surrendered it to Hornaday, who led Mike Skinner, Todd Bodine, Jon Wood and Marks after 10 laps. By Lap 20, Hornaday had extended his margin to a full 3 seconds, his Camping World Chevrolet Silverado clearly the class of the field early on.

Behind Hornaday, Skinner and his Toyota Tundra-sponsored truck fought back a challenge from the Sprague. While those two battled hard for second, Hornaday stretched his lead to more than 5 seconds by Lap 30. That margin vanished when the first caution flew on Lap 34 for debris.

Hornaday won the race off pit road ahead of his teammate Sprague, Skinner. Rick Crawford and Wood. Busch, who was working on the first leg of his historic Sprint Cup, Nationwide and NCTS triple-header, pitted for major suspension adjustments under yellow and when the green flag flew on Lap 38, he was 28th. But he immediately began charging forward, picking up nine spots by Lap 42.

On Lap 47, Sprague took the lead for the first time, the Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevys running 1-2. Seven laps later, the two traded places again, putting on an entertaining show at the front of the pack. Busch, meanwhile, was up to ninth by Lap 55 and moving forward rapidly.

The second caution — for Aric Almirola's spin off Turn 2 on Lap 61 — jumbled the order with Johnny Benson and Bobby East taking fuel only in the pits to lead over Hornaday and Sprague as the track went green on Lap 66. But it took just five laps for Hornaday to reclaim the lead. Sprague soon followed him into second, the KHI drivers again reasserting their superiority.

At the midway point, Hornaday and Sprague were three seconds up on Benson's Toyota Certified used vehicles Tundra, with East's Zaxby's Ford F-150 and Wood's Air Force Ford rounding out the top five. At this point, Hornaday and Sprague were in a race of their own, and just as Sprague took the lead again, a caution flew for Stacy Compton, who lost an engine in the Bobby Hamilton Racing Dodge.

Sprague won the race off pit road, ahead of Hornaday and Matt Crafton, who like the two leaders took gas only in the pits. East and Wood rounded out the top five, with Busch now up to eighth.

Hornaday made one of his patented banzai restarts and took the lead again just after the track went green again. Busch kept his charge moving forward, reaching fifth place by Lap 95. But he soon started falling back, apparently no match on this night for the KHI Chevrolets.

Then things got sloppy. Colin Braun slapped the wall and lost a right-rear tire right before the start-finish line on Lap 114 to bring out the evening's fourth caution flag. That sent the trucks down pit road, the leaders all taking four tires, as Hornaday led Sprague and Jason White, who stopped for gas only, and East.

But White had a tire rub on his Gunbroker.com Dodge and his tire went down in Turn 1, putting him into the wall on Lap 120 and bringing out Caution No. 5. The green flew on Lap 128, with Hornaday leading Sprague, Benson, East and Crafton. Busch quickly jumped to fifth once the track went green as he moved past Crafton.

On Lap 130, the caution flew again as Scott Speed lost it on the front stretch and drifted up into the pre-race points leader Rick Crawford. Speed shot diagonally across the infield at high speed and narrowly missed the inside wall on pit road in what was a great save.

Crawford wasn't so lucky, as the contact cut his tire and he spun in Turn 1, blowing a left-rear tire. That tore up his sheetmetal, knocking him out of contention for a victory and forcing several quick pit stops for repairs. It also spread a lot of debris around the track, necessitating a lengthy cleanup.

The order this time was Hornaday, Sprague, Benson, East and Busch, as the green flag flew on Lap 138. Busch nearly lost it coming out of Turn 2, getting sideways as he took fourth place. At the same time, Benson took second from Sprague and set off after Hornaday.

On Lap 147, Ted Musgrave lost an engine in Turn 2 in his Team ASE/Harris Trucking Tundra. Behind him David Starr spun and made contact with the inside backstretch wall in his Pit-now.com Toyota. This chain of events also caused a lengthy cleanup, with the track going green with just 11 laps to go, Hornaday ahead of Benson, Sprague, Busch and Bodine.

Busch rocketed to second after the restart and planted himself on Hornaday's rear bumper. Then, with three laps left, Speed tried to go three-wide with Marc Mitchell and Skinner entering Turn 3, setting up the green-white-checkered finish. But Busch couldn't close the gap and Hornaday took the victory.

"What a piece of crap, but we fixed it and made the most of it," said runner-up Busch.