Hornaday races to record 5th straight win

GLADEVILLE, Tenn. — Ron Hornaday Jr. raced to his record fifth straight NASCAR Camping World Trucks victory, easily holding off Brian Scott in a green-white-checker finish Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway.

“Five! Can you believe that?” the 51-year-old Hornaday said.

The Kevin Harvick Inc. driver has six wins this year to push his series-record total to 44 in 239 career starts. He also has a record three season titles.

Hornaday became the third driver in NASCAR’s three national series to win five consecutive races. In Sprint Cup, Richard Petty won 10 races in a row in 1967 and five straight in 1971, and Bobby Allison also won five consecutive races in 1971.

“This is unbelievable. You can never compare to The King (Petty) and Bobby Allison, but this is an honor to just be in the same book as they are,” Hornaday said. “This will mean a lot to me when I’m sitting down with my grandkids looking through the record book and my name will be in there with the Allisons and Richard Petty.”

Rick Ren also set a series record for victories by a crew chief with 27. He broke the record he shared with Dennis Connor.

“I think that’s an honor,” said Ren, a winner with five drivers. “A lot of people don’t really know how hard this is.”

Hornaday passed first-time pole-sitter Timothy Peters on the 34th lap of the 150-lap event on the 1.333-mile concrete oval, and led a race-high 115 laps.

The start was delayed about 35 minutes while rain moved through the area. Then on lap 102, the caution flag waved as rain pelted the grandstands. NASCAR deemed the track surface to be safe and the race went green on lap 105.

Terry Cook spun and hit the wall in turn two with two laps to go, forcing the green-white-checker finish.

There were six caution period in the race. Rain forced a yellow from lap 102 to 105, but the storms held off long enough for Hornaday to claim the victory.

Colin Braun was third, followed by Peters, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter,Rick Crawford, Dennis Setzer, Tayler Malsam and T.J. Bell.

Hornaday has a 216-point lead over second-place Crafton in the season standings.