- (Sports Network) - Ron Hornaday, Jr. overcame a one-lap deficit to win Friday night's Chevy Silverado 350K Craftsman Truck Series race at the Texas Motor Speedway. The No.33 Chevrolet driver and defending series champion led the final 40 laps and finished just under a second ahead of Kyle Busch. Hornaday recorded a season-sweep at Texas as he won here in June. It was his sixth victory of the season and the 39th of his career.

With the victory, Hornaday is just six points behind leader Johnny Benson, making it the closest margin in the series with two races to go. Only Phoenix and Homestead remain on the schedule.

"I'm pretty good at Phoenix, and Johnny's pretty good there too," Hornaday said. "We're going to go down there and see what happens."

Benson was never a factor throughout the race, but rallied as he passed Todd Bodine and Colin Braun in the final laps to score a third-place finish and retain the points lead.

"It was tough," Benson said. "Those guys were just starting to slow down, and the adjustments that we made were just good."

Bodine and Braun rounded out the top-five.

Pole sitter Rick Crawford led the field to the green flag, but Busch immediately moved to the front as he passed Cale Gale for second and then dove underneath Crawford and grabbed the top spot.

On the second lap, Gale spun and slammed into the wall, taking several other drivers with him. Crawford, Jon Wood, TJ Bell and Ryan Lawler were also involved in the incident. Crawford suffered minor damage to his right-front fender and had to pit several times during the caution, while Gale, Wood, Bell and Lawler were all forced out of competition.

When the race resumed on Lap 11, Hornaday worked his way to the front as he passed Travis Kvapil for the second spot. But Max Papis, in his first-ever Truck Series start, temporarily interrupted Hornaday's efforts as Papis made contact with the wall for the second caution on Lap 16.

Hornaday finally caught Busch on Lap 53 when Busch got caught in lap traffic and Hornaday moved underneath him to take the lead for the first time.

But Hornaday gave up the lead five laps later when he pitted for the first time. During Hornaday's stop, Jack Smith cut a left-front tire and hit the inside wall on the backstretch.

The caution put Hornaday a lap behind in 16th.

However, David Starr and Chad McCumbee made contact and crashed on Lap 65, allowing Hornaday to get back on the lead lap. By Lap 93, he was back in the top-five just before Donny Lia spun in the infield grass and came to a rest on pit road for the fifth and final caution.

Kvapil won the battle off of pit road and led the field for the restart on Lap 98. Busch restarted third and passed Erik Darnell for second, but couldn't catch Kvapil for the lead.

Hornaday was back in command for the final time when he caught Kvapil and then moved around him on Lap 107. Busch then stole the second spot from Kvapil the following lap.

Hornaday grabbed the lead for the final when he drove around Kvapil. Busch then caught Kvapil for the second spot. Kvapil faded in the closing laps and ended up finishing seventh.

The next race is scheduled for Friday, November 7, at the Phoenix International Raceway.





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