Ron Hornaday Jr. moved higher into the NASCAR record book alongside some
famous company Saturday in the Toyota Tundra 200, becoming the third driver to
win five straight races in a national series and the first in 38 years.
Horanday joined Richard Petty and Bobby Allison, who both did it in 1971 in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, in a tie for second on the all-time consecutive win
list. Petty holds the all-time record with 10 straight in 1967 in the Cup
series.
"That's unheard of (five straight) in this time and age," Hornaday said. "Five,
can you believe that?"
Hornaday led 115 of 154 laps in the Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet. It was his
sixth victory of the season and 45th of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
career, first on the all-time list.
It was Hornaday's first win in 13 NASCAR races at the 1.33-mile
concrete-surfaced track, five in trucks and eight in the Nationwide Series. He
has long coveted winning Nashville's trademark trophy, a Gibson guitar painted
by artist Sam Bass.
"I finally got me a Sam Bass guitar," Hornaday said.
Hornaday led the final 63 laps. He had a 2.8-second lead over Brian Scott wiped
out by a late caution, which forced the race into a green-white-checkered
overtime finish.
Hornaday easily pulled away from Scott on the final restart and won by .944
seconds.
Rick Ren, Hornaday's crew chief, also moved up in the history books with his
27th victory as a crew chief in the series. He's done it with five different
drivers, but has 16 since the start of the 2007 season with Hornaday.
"We both made history tonight," Ren said. "It's not much better than this. I
think most wins is an honor, but what I really feel good about is I've done it
with five different drivers."
Scott, who has driven with a broken right hand in the past five races, finished
second with Colin Braun third.
Hornaday restarted fifth following his final pit stop on Lap 86. He had come in
leading and gave up track position to leader Jason White, who had stayed out,
and three others who had taken only right-side tires. Hornaday took four tires.
Hornaday made a three-wide pass for the lead at the start of the 92nd lap, going
inside White exiting Turn 4. Scott went outside and held onto second place.
Polesitter Timothy Peters was fourth, followed by Matt Crafton.
Hornaday's winning streak has put him into a commanding position in the
championship. He's 216 points ahead of second-place Crafton and 248 in front of
third-place Mike Skinner, who finished 14th.