Kyle Busch used a lightning-fast late-race pit stop to win Saturday's Helluva
Good! 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor
Speedway.
Busch pitted under green with less than 30 laps to go to pass the dominant Kevin
Harvick Inc. Chevrolet Silverados of series points leader Hornaday and team
owner Harvick to score his fifth Truck Series race of the season.
Harvick finished second in his No. 2 Dupli-Color Chevy, followed by Hornaday's
No. 33 Copart Chevy. Fourth was Matt Crafton in the No. 88 Menards Chevy, with
Johnny Sauter rounding out the top five.
Mike Skinner, last week's winner in St. Louis, started from the pole in his
Exide Toyota Tundra, flanked by NASCAR Sprint Cup regular Busch in Billy
Ballew's Miccosukee Resorts Toyota.
Skinner started on the outside, the two beating and banging in Turn 2, Busch
getting sideways as Skinner survived to lead the first lap.
Todd Bodine had trouble early, pitting on Lap 6 with no fuel pressure in his
Lumber Liquidators Toyota. "The fuel pump quit," said Bodine. " … But that's the
story of our season so far."
Matt Crafton and Kevin Harvick made contact on Lap 9 as the two battled for
fifth place. Harvick appeared to initiate the contact, one day after he had
blocked Crafton on pit road in retaliation for Crafton knocking series points
leader Ron Hornaday Jr. out of the race last week with just four laps to go.
Busch took the lead on Lap 17, with Hornaday's KHI Chevrolet moving into second
place a couple of laps later.
The first caution flew on Lap 38, when Tim Bainey Jr. lost an engine in his No.
00 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota. That sent the field down pit road for the first
time. After two sets of stops, Harvick took the lead over Hornaday and Busch.
Shortly after the restart, Busch went to the point and Harvick moved over to let
Hornaday take second. Skinner and Johnny Sauter completed the top five at the
one-quarter distance.
Busch led 46 of the first 65 laps, and when Hornaday tried to pass him on Lap
66, Busch chopped down hard on him block. Finally, Hornaday got the lead for the
first time on Lap 69, earning 5 bonus points for his efforts as Harvick hung
close in third.
Just before halfway, Rob Fuller made contact with the wall to bring out the
second caution of the race and trigger another round of pit stops. Stopping only
for gas and not for tires were Hornaday, Skinner, Busch and Michael McDowell,
with T.J. Bell taking fifth.
The race was then red-flagged to allow repairs to be made to the SAFER barrier
where Fuller hit it.
The race restarted on Lap 99, Hornaday easily holding off Busch initially. About
15 laps later, Busch's truck began to overheat due to debris on the grille. But
it came off by Lap 127, and the engine came back to normal temperature shortly
thereafter.
On Lap 144, Harvick passed Busch for second place, making it an all-KHI top two,
with Hornaday leading his boss and team owner.
It didn't take long for Harvick to catch Hornaday, put the three-times series
champion aggressively defended his lead. While the teammates duked it out up
front, Sauter passed Busch for third on Lap 158.
Sauter soon joined the fray, making it a three-way battle for the lead.
Harvick pitted for fuel with 31 laps to go, just before Sauter ran out of gas
and coasted into the pits for a lengthy stop. Hornaday and Crafton pitted one
lap after Harvick, taking 4.5 seconds worth of gas.
Busch came in on Lap 172, and came out with the lead, his crew taking just the
minimum time to get him in and out of pit road.
By the time the stops cycled through, Busch had the lead by nearly 1 full second
over Hornaday and Harvick.
But with 12 laps to go, a caution flew, with a furious Harvick bumping his
teammate under yellow to let Hornaday know how unhappy he was that Hornaday was
holding him up.
With seven laps to go, the green flag came out, Busch led Hornaday, Harvick and
Crafton. And that's how they finished.
