Ron Hornaday Jr. walked away with in his record fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship in 2009, but it was Kyle Busch who electrified the series while running a partial schedule.
Busch competed in just 15 of the 25 NCWTS races last season, as his full-time obligations in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series certainly took precedence. In those 15 starts, though, he managed to post some monster numbers: two poles, seven victories, 11 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes.
Despite missing nearly half the series schedule, Busch finished 17th in points, a fairly incredible achievement, given how few races he ran. And in the races he entered, Busch ran up front a lot. All told, he led 21.7 percent of the 4,009 laps run during the entire season, again second only to Hornaday.
Busch's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victories in 2009:
• Race No. 2, San Bernardino 200, Auto Club Speedway — Busch qualified the No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota Tundra on the pole and led 95 of 100 laps to score an easy victory.
• Race No. 3, American Commercial Lines 200, Atlanta Motor Speedway — Busch passed Todd Bodine with five laps to go to secure his second consecutive Truck Series victory. All told, Busch led four times for 33 of 130 laps.
• Race No. 15, O'Reilly 200, Bristol Motor Speedway — Busch is usually money at the 0.533-mile, high-banked oval, and this time was no exception, as he led 82 of 200 laps. Busch took the lead on Lap 124 and never again trailed. He also went on to win the Sprint Cup race at Bristol that weekend.
• Race No. 16, enjoyillinois.com 225, Chicagoland Speedway — Once again, Busch made a late-race pass of Bodine to win, this one coming with 19 laps left in the race. Over the 150-lap race length, Busch led 79 laps.
• Race No. 19, Heluva Good 200!, New Hampshire Motor Speedway — Hornaday dominated the early action, but Busch passed Rick Crawford on Lap 200 to secure his fifth Truck Series victory of the season.
• Race No. 22, Mountain Dew 250, Talladega Superspeedway — It was déjà vu all over again, as for the third time in six victories, Busch's race-winning pass came at the expense of Bodine. This one was especially gratifying as it came on the final lap of the race.
• Race No. 23, WinStar World Casino 350, Texas Motor Speedway — Busch's final Truck Series victory of 2009 came at the wicked-fast 1.5-mile Texas track, where Busch led 54 laps, including the final 50, to hold off Matt Crafton and Hornaday.
