CLERMONT, Ind. — It’s a good thing Ron Hornaday, Jr. is a better NASCAR driver than he is a mathematician.
The two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion figured he would have to average 10 points more per race than point-leader Mike Skinner to be within striking distance by the last race of the season.
Skinner had a 164-point lead over Hornaday as they left pit road to form the front row July 27 for the rain-delayed Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park.
With 12 races remaining in the 2007 series, Hornaday sensed that he had to put a dent in Skinner’s lead. He showed Skinner and the rest of the field that he had a sledgehammer in the No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet.
Hornaday led 90 laps, including the last 30 circuit of the 201-lap chase, while Skinner struggled to finish 20th after leading the very first lap.
In winning his first ORP truck race since 1997, Hornaday shattered Skinner’s 164-point lead down to a mere 77 points (2,346 to 2,269) with 11 races left in the 2007 season.
Skinner, who had never finished worse than eighth this season, had a lengthy pit stop on lap 126 that dropped him to 25th. He was the last car on the lead lap at the finish.
“The only way we could catch Skinner was for him to have bad luck,” Hornaday said. “I can’t worry about points, but we have to win races. I’m sure Skinner’s going to be running twice as hard now.”
To win the 32nd truck race of his career, Hornaday had to overcome Travis Kvapil and fight off runner-up Johnny Benson in a Bill Davis Racing Toyota in a frantic two-lap sprint to the finish after the race’s ninth restart on lap 199.
“I was able to out-drive him (Benson) in the corners,” Hornaday said. “I tried everything I could do to keep him behind me. He wanted that win as badly as I did.”
A crew member slipped during Benson’s pit stop on lap 78 that turned out to be costly. He emerged in 11th place and later passed Kvapil for second place 100 laps later. On the last lap, he tried to go underneath Hornaday in turns three and four.
“I just barreled it in turn four to see what would happen, but the car wouldn’t stick,” Benson said. “Our truck was good enough to get second — we burned the tires up getting there.”
Hornaday tracked down Kvapil, who led for 66 laps, on lap 170, overcoming a 1.166-second deficit in 15 laps.
“I had a really good short-run truck,” said Kvapil, driver of a Jack Roush-owned Ford. “My truck was good for 20 to 25 laps, but then it was way too loose and the rear tires went away.”
Kvapil was third, ahead of 2006 race winner Rick Crawford, Ken Schrader after starting 17th, Todd Bodine, Erik Darnell, Regan Smith, Jack Sprague and Brendan Gaughan.
The NASCAR triumph was an ORP first for Hornaday’s crew chief, Rick Ren, who is from nearby eastern Illinois. He and Hornaday made a couple of adjustments after practice but made no changes during the race.
“When you can drive a truck like this, it’s fun,” Hornaday said.
A persistent rain washed out qualifications and forced a delay of two hours and 20 minutes before the race started in front of an estimated crowd of 35,000.