Ron Hornaday Finishes Second at ORP; Moves Just 15 Points Out of Points Lead in Quest for Fourth Championship; Matt Crafton Stays in Championship Hunt

Ron Hornaday, No. 33 VFW Silverado, scored his seventh (7th) top-five finish of the season in the Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park.  The three-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCTS) champion led twice for 153 of the 200-laps but couldn't hold off a charging Johnny Benson who took the point on lap 162.  Hornaday's finish pulled him within 15 points of the lead with 14 of 25 races in the record books.

Matt Crafton, No. 88 Menards/Johns Manville Silverado, finished fourth to capture his eighth top-five of the season to keep him in the championship hunt, just 16 points behind Team Chevy Silverado teammate Hornaday.

Shelby Howard, No. 13 FarmPaint.com Silverado, came to the checkered flag in fifth (5th) to score his career-best NCTS finish and give Team Chevy Silverado three of the top-five finishers. Erik Darnell finished third to round out the top-five.  T.J. Bell, No. 7 Heathcliff's Cat Litter /Home for the Holidays Silverado, finished seventh (7th) for his career-best score.

Donny Lia, No. 71 NationRides.com Silverado, was ninth (7th) to give Silverado five of the top-10 finishers.

RON HORNADAY, NO. 33 VFW SILVERADO, STARTED 4TH, FINISHED 2ND:  WHAT HAPPENED THAT YOUR TRUCK SEEMED TO FALL OFF THERE AT THE END? "I don't know about that you better look at the lap times the VFW Chevrolet didn't fall off Johnny Benson just got better.  I mean he was the one to beat.  We went back and forth.  Rick Ren (crew chief) Danny (truck chief) and all those guys they worked hard together to get this Chevrolet truck to work good and we went back to last year's set up.  They worked their guts out and I'm proud of them.  I've got to thank Hughes-Peters for coming on board and VFW and Chevrolet.  This is awesome.

"But we really wanted to win this one for VFW and Chevrolet and Hues Peters. But Johnny had the dominant truck all-day; he just rolled great through the middle. I will take second to him anytime here at ORP, but darn, just a little frustrated. I think we led the most laps so I don't think he gained too many points on us. We still have a lot of races left and I am proud we brought this home in one piece."

AS YOU GUYS WORKED YOUR WAY TO THE FRONT ONE OF THE THINGS, THE FOUR WHEEL DRIFT TO THE OUTSIDE, IS THAT AS EXCITING AS IT LOOKED OR IS IT JUST WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO MOVE TO THE FRONT?  "I don't know if that was exciting or not.  There was hardly anybody passing.  Yeah it might have been alright.  I'm very surprised how fast our truck was."

STARTED OFF WITH A HUGE LEAD, DID THE TRUCK GO AWAY?  "I didn't have a huge lead, was just lucky Johnny started eighth and we were fourth and we got up there pretty early.  We had a good truck.  Johnny Benson, we overlapped each other's time and when the yellow came out there it just put us closer and I was driving harder and just got it tight in the center and he could roll the center just a little better.  I'm very proud of these guys in the VFW Chevrolet.  They did an awesome job.  We went from coil bind back to conventional back to coil bind.  These guys never say die and the truck is in one piece and we'll take it to the next race.

"Our second set of tires were scuffs and they didn't roll as good as our first set of tires. Rick Carelli, my spotter, said Johnny could run the top or the bottom. On that restart, he was smart enough to go to the top and got us. I could have raced him dirty, but Johnny doesn't race me dirty and both our trucks rolled in the garage clean and we'll race like that at all the other short tracks. It is a shame though, this team really needs another win."

JACK SPRAGUE, NO. 2 AMERICAN COMMERCIAL LINES SILVERADO, STARTED 2ND, FINISHED 17TH: "We were really really loose early, but Ernie (Cope, crew chief) and the guys kept working on it and gained on it. Our ACL Chevrolet was coming to me. Unfortunately, we lost a couple spots on pit road on our only pit stop and then we got caught up in a wreck late running sixth I think. The No. 60 truck and I tried to follow him because the No. 30 was spinning in front of us but there was nothing we could do, I just got caught up. Just a string of bad luck, I don't know how, but hopefully we can get this monkey off our back soon."

MATT CRAFTON, NO. 88 MENARDS SILVERADO, STARTED 11TH, FINISHED 4TH: "We started the race and were horrible. I told my guys, I am not trying to be a jerk here, but this thing is just this truck is a piece of crap.  I am must to blame as much as they are because we work on this together and make decisions together on what we are going to do to our Menards Chevrolet. We started that race horrible and we made some wholesale changes during that race. Like I said, these guys are awesome, they never give up. Another good finish for this team."

SHELBY HOWARD, NO. 13 FARMPAINT.COM SILVERADO, STARTED 6TH, STARTED 5TH: "This was a good night for us, the best finish we have had all year. The guys worked hard on the FarmPaint.com Chevrolet. They gave me a good piece. We were going to pit when Matt (Crafton) pitted and a few of them behind us, but we had a miscommunication and didn't come in so we lost some track position. But other than that, it was a good night for us; we came back up through the field.

"I have ran a couple of Nationwide races here, so I kind of knew what to expect, but I have never run this low here coming off the corners underneath the apron. That was different, never been able to do that before, but had a lot of fun tonight."

T.J. BELL, NO. 7 HEATHCLIFF'S CAT LITTER /HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS SILVERADO, STARTED 17TH, FINISHED 7TH: "I'll tell you what, these guys built an unbelievable truck.  As soon as they dropped the green flag we went forward.  We just took off.  We were a rocket ship on long runs.  We made contact with the 60 truck in a racing incident and had to go to the back and we drove all the way back to the front.  Man, I had so much fun.  If they gave out an award for passing the most trucks, I think we did it today.  And these guys all deserve it.  That was fun for me.  These guys did all the work and I can't thank Heathcliff's Cat Litter and Home4theHolidays.org enough for giving me this opportunity.  It was a good time."

CHAD MCCUMBEE, NO. 8 MALCOLMSON CONSTRUCTION SILVERADO, STARTED 22ND, FINISHED 31ST - INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT ON LAP 136: "Unfortunately, the No. 51(Kyle Busch) took us out again.  He drives as hard as he can every lap and that is what you have got to do, but we are racing here for points and trying to protect ourselves. It looked like we were going to have a good top-10 or so day, but two weeks in the row. I might get to see him a little bit more than he thinks the rest of the year and might get to race with him a little bit more. I am just pretty frustrated. I just don't have a whole lot really good to say here."

LANDON CASSILL, NO. 81 GODADDY.COM SILVERADO, STARTED 81, FINISHED 14th: "I really had a blast out there tonight.  I started off tight so we pitted there early and Eric Phillips (crew chief) and the guys on this Randy Moss Motorsports teams made some great adjustments and my truck really came to life when we went back to green flag racing.  I was running the low line and my truck really took off.  Just past the halfway point in the race we started to lose grip on our Chevy Silverado and that hurt us pretty bad.  We tried a few more things there late in the race but the truck just would not respond like it had earlier.  In all though, I really had a good time and I just love to race these trucks.  I wish we could have gotten a little better finish for the team cause I really think we were a better truck than where we finished."

OTHER SILVERADO FINISHERS:
DONNY LIA, NO. 71 NATIONRIDES.COM SILVERADO, STARTED 24TH, FINISHED 9TH
CHAD CHAFFIN, NO. 40 KEY MOTORSPORTS SILVERADO, STARTED 27TH, FINISHED 13TH
SEAN MURPHY, NO. 07 ASI LIMITED SILVERADO, STARTED 29TH, FINISHED 27TH
MARIO GOSSELIN, NO. 12 CRASHEDTOYS.COM SILVERADO, STARTED 25TH, FINISHED 28TH
BRIAN SCOTT, NO. 16 ALBERTSON'S SILVERADO, STARTED 21ST, FINISHED 29TH
JOHNNY CHAPMAN, NO. 0 ASI LIMITED SILVERADO, STARTED 29TH, FINISHED 34TH