Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch matched driving and team-owning skills in the E-Z-GO 200 Camping World Truck race Saturday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Harvick emerged with the upper hand.
Harvick led 100 of 130 laps in the second race of the Camping World Truck season and rolled to a relatively easy (1.30 seconds) win over Busch. Each drove for their own Truck teams.
Harvick led the final 56 laps.
"I never let off over I don't know how many laps (to the finish)," Harvick said. "The only chance they had was on the restarts. It was a lot of fun. We'll keep at it."
The team made only one minor tire-pressure change all day.
Harvick has won in all three major NASCAR series at Atlanta and at Phoenix International Raceway.
Following Busch at the finish were Aric Almirola, Steve Wallace (in his Truck debut) and Todd Bodine.
Rookie Austin Dillon, running the No. 3 truck for Richard Childress Racing, finished 10th. The finish was a boost for Dillon, who crashed at the start of the Truck opener at Daytona International Speedway last month. "It was a long wait to get back in it again," Dillon said. "I've been thinking all this time about what I could have done differently at Daytona."
Two contenders saw their afternoons end early. Pole winner Ron Hornaday parked 22 laps into the race after his truck was damaged after contact with Kyle Busch in a three-wide battle with Matt Crafton. Crafton was involved in three cautions and finished 27th.
Busch was in the middle of the accident that booted Hornaday from the competition.
"We went three wide into there, and when I got down there I don't know if Crafton went up or the 33 (Hornaday) came down, but I got squeezed in the middle," Busch said. The contact caused minor right-front damage to Busch's truck.
Busch was much more concerned with an incident that involved Boris Said in the day's final Sprint Cup practice.
"He shouldn't even be on the track," Busch said of Said. "He bought his way into points and a ride. He was running in the middle of the track when he should have been on the outside."
(Photo: Brian Lawdermilk/ HHP - Pool/Getty Images for NASCAR)