Ron Hornaday in Victory Lane (L) Mike Bliss holds up 2002 Championship Trophy (R) View the High Sierra Photo Gallery for this Race

Hornaday Wins Ford 200 At Homestead

Mike Bliss, who entered Friday's Ford 200 needing only a fifth-place finish to wrap up the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, hit the number on the nose as "insurance" driver Ron Hornaday won the race in a second IWX Motor Freight/Knights Inn Chevrolet. Hornaday joined Bliss's Steve Coulter-owned operation after Rick Crawford cut the leader's margin to 32 points at Phoenix International Raceway on Nov. 8. The two-time series champion performed as required -- taking the lead on the 114th lap to score his 26th NASCAR Craftsman Truck victory. Hornaday averaged a record 133.260 mph in a race slowed just once by caution for four laps -- both series record lows. Ted Musgrave, who entered the race 71 points back, finished second in the Mopar Performance Dodge, leading the most laps of the race but that wasn't enough to dislodge either Bliss from the top spot or Crawford from the No. 2 ranking in points. Crawford stopped early during a second round of green flag pit stops and was trapped by the event's only yellow. He finished a lap behind in seventh place. The final point totals were Bliss 3,359, Crawford 3,313 and Musgrave 3,308. Musgrave's Ultra Motorsports teammate Jason Leffler finished fourth, followed by Robert Pressley, who won the season's final Waste Management Picking Up Places Award for his advance from a start of 33rd. Bliss and Dennis Setzer were the only other lead lap finishers. There were six lead changes among five drivers. Bliss, Coulter and the Xpress Motorsports team will celebrate Saturday during the annual champion's banquet at the Bal Harbour Beach Resort in nearby Bal Harbour.

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