Ron Hornaday and his team had made things too complicated while trying to regain their edge.
Ron Hornaday celebrates his AAA Insurance 200 victory at O'Reilly Raceway Park.
The most successful driver in NASCAR Truck Series history had made subtle changes in his approach, and his team had been tinkering with his truck while trying to pull him out of a winless streak that had reached 22 races.
The familiar version of Hornaday surfaced on Friday. He led 129 of the 200 laps to win the Trucks Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park for the third time in four years.
"I'm just back to my 'Come to the race track and try to kick butt,' and it seems to be working," he said.
Hornaday, who qualified fifth, became the first driver to win four major NASCAR races at O'Reilly. He also won the trucks races in 1997, 2007 and 2009.
"We just kind of went back to what we call our basic package," crew chief Ernie Cope said. "We've had people come in and try to do their own thing. I know everybody wants to make an identity for themselves, but it wasn't working, and we just went back to basics with Ron and let him drive the truck. You're going to win a lot of races when you do that with Ron Hornaday."
Kyle Busch finished second after pestering Hornaday throughout the race.
"I wish we had a little bit more for him," Busch said. "I gave it all I had. I burned both fronts and both rears off that thing. There was nothing left."
Matt Crafton finished third, and pole-sitter Timothy Peters finished 10th.
Points leader Todd Bodine was seventh after qualifying sixth on the short 0.686-mile track. Bodine has nine top-five finishes in 12 starts, but his worst three finishes -- seventh at ORP, 30th at Martinsville and 17th at Iowa -- have come on short tracks.
Hornaday's win last year set a record for consecutive truck series wins with four. He then won the next race at Nashville to push the record to five, but hadn't won since. He was relieved after Friday's victory.
"It's just a great day," he said. "Hopefully, it keeps everybody a little bit quiet. The guys were getting a little anxious. We know we've got a winning team. We just had to prove it to them."
Hornaday moved past Busch for second place in lap 59, then pushed past Peters for the lead in lap 62.
Hornaday built a significant advantage, but a yellow flag during lap 85 to remove debris from the track drew the leaders together. Hornaday had a good pit stop to remain in front.
A three-car crash put Aric Almirola out of the race near the midway point. Almirola, who entered the race second in points, finished 31st out of 36 drivers.
There was contact between Hornaday and Busch during lap 101 shortly after a caution, but both drivers maintained control, and Hornaday quickly reasserted himself as the leader. Johnny Sauter then moved past Busch into second.
Peters gained the lead after a caution, Busch moved into second and Hornaday dropped to third three-fourths of the way through. Hornaday noticed that Peters was moving a bit slow in front of Busch, so he quickly moved inside while Busch was up high in turn three and passed them both to regain the lead in lap 152.
Busch helplessly tried to maneuver around Peters.
"I was trying to get to his outside, but he'd never leave me enough room on the exit," Busch said. "My nose was there a couple times. Instead of wrecking him, you just fall in line and try to find another way around him."
Busch praised Hornaday's move.
"I forgot all about that move here at ORP, and Hornaday did it," Busch said. "That's just one of the things you've got to remember at this place is you can dive on the bottom really fast. It was unfortunate that I didn't think of it first. He did, and he won the race with it."
SOURCE: The Associated Press
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