LOUDON, N.H. — Ron Hornaday, Jr. has spent the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season proving that you can go home again.
He illustrated his point Saturday at New Hampshire Int’l Speedway by winning the New Hampshire 200 to become the first repeat winner in Truck Series competition at the 1.058-mile speedway. It was his 33rd career CTS triumph —  matching the number on his Camping World Chevrolet — and his fourth of the season.
His position and bonus points, combined with Mike Skinner’s third-place finish, extended Hornaday’s championship lead to 29 points as he chases his third series championship. He last won the CTS crown in 1998.
Erik Darnell made a late-race charge to take second in his Roush  Fenway Racing Ford, but once he got within five seconds of Hornaday, the veteran just turned up the wick and preserved a 4.2-second margin at the checkered flag.
 Skinner was third in his Toyota, with Todd Bodine and Mike Bliss completing the top five. Rick Crawford, Ted Musgrave, Johnny Benson, Jon Wood and Shane Sieg were sixth through 10th.
The story line was pretty simple. Hornaday started on the pole by points after qualifying was rained out, lost the lead on the first pit stop under caution, then regained it by passing Skinner within a dozen laps.
The second and last pit-stop cycles came during green-flag racing, but Hornaday paced the last 57 circuits and led 174 of the 200 laps.
“There are a lot of guys out there that would give anything to drive a truck like this,” Hornaday commented. “I could put it in positions it shouldn’t have been in and it came out of every one of them. I could just put the power down in this Chevy and go. I have to thank Richard Childress Racing engines for awesome horsepower.”
Crew chief Rick Ren was more succinct, “It was just bad. I mean she was just fast right out of the hauler.”
Darnell was the pleasant surprise of the race that started in the murky wake of an all-morning rain but became sunny and chilly as the afternoon progressed.
He started 11th and advanced unobtrusively to sixth at mid-race and fourth on the final restart. He nailed Skinner for third on lap 165 and Bodine for second four laps later, but could advance no further.
Only four caution periods for 19 laps slowed the pace, the last eliminating Kyle Busch, who made it from 31st to seventh but never looked like a contender to win. Of the 36 starters, 32 were running at the finish with 11 on the lead lap.