showed didn’t show any drivers and very few crewmembers rendering proper respects during the National Anthem. They showed Jack Sprague and Mr. Happy jaw-jacking.
Ron Hornaday got the pole with Chad McCumbee sitting on the outside pole. McCumbee’s doing pretty good this season carrying some momentum with him from last season. Scott Speed, no relation to Lake Speed, was in the #46 Morgan-Dollar truck.
Joey Clanton was replaced by Travis Kvapil in the #09 truck after only two races with the Roush team. Guess Joey should’ve stayed with the Wood Brothers.
The commentary crew was once again spoiled by the addition of one of the co-owners of Motormouth Motorsports.
When the green flag dropped, it was déjà vu all over again for Ted Musgrave. In a replay of the move that cost him a championship at Homestead a couple of years ago, Chad McCumbee was slow getting started and Ted jumped to the inside of him to keep from rear ending McCumbee. Well, Ted got black flagged for that and went a lap down with a pass through penalty.
Hornaday and Kyle Busch were going back and forth for the lead. You kept wondering if Busch was going to wreck because he was slipping and sliding all over the track. And the other trucks were all over the place. Some running 2-3 wide, some side by side, and some running single file. Once things got settled down, it looked like there were pretty much 2 grooves in the early going. One high and one low.
Kyle had the lead and Hornaday would drop back, cool his tires off, and then make a run at Busch. He did this several times before the first caution on Lap 19. Johnny Benson blew out a tire and went behind the wall for some repairs. The co-owner of Motormouth Motorsports was quick to blame it on an equipment malfunction until they ran a replay and you could hear that the tire blew out. Then he quickly backpedaled on his previous remarks saying that he may have run over some debris. Up to that point, there wasn’t any debris on the track.
During the pit stops, Busch spent a lot of time on pit road for adjustments. He came in twice and ended up having to re-start at the back of the field. When they dropped the green flag, Ted Musgrave had moved up to 27th. Scott Speed was playing it cautious with a vibration he had and returned to the pits. The restart was missed so that we could see an overdose of Hot Pass and Viagra commercials. Not just back to back, but they ran both commercials twice. I guess they’re saying the males watching the truck race have E.D. and need Hot Pass to go with their Viagra.
Hornaday took off with the lead and put a little distance between him and second place. On Lap 28, the trucks were spread out 4 wide. Colin Braun thought he had a tire going down and was trying to move down to the apron. Kyle Busch got into Colin causing Colin to spin. Luckily there was no major damage to Colin’s truck and there was no caution thrown.
Obviously NA$CAR had a complaint or two about Kyle driving all over the track, including passing on the apron, because on Lapp 33 they told him to calm down. Just to show how calm he was, Kyle went on the high side of the track and passed several trucks like they were standing still. On lap 39, Johnny Benson returned to the track after making repairs.
While they were at commercial, Caution #2 came out. The #9 truck spun by himself and didn’t hit anything. During the pit stops they showed on replay, there were a lot of close calls on pit road.
Lap 46 they went back to green with Sprague having got the lead in the pits, but by Turn 2, Hornaday had retaken the lead with Busch right behind him. By Lap 48, Busch had retaken the lead. There was some good side by side racing going on between 4 trucks for 3rd through 6th place. On Lap 51, Hornaday was once again in the lead. By Lap 77, Busch had once again moved into the lead. Ted Musgrave had worked his way back up to 11th. There was a 3 second spread between 1st and 3rd.
While they were at commercial, Hornaday once again was back in the lead. This was about the time we got another massive dose of Viagra and Hot Pass commercials. Dennis Setzer, who had a miserable year last season with Morgan-Dollar was having a decent run in his BHR truck.
One thing was pretty obvious was that the trucks were slipping and sliding around the track. Nobody was exempt. We got another batch of commercials and they returned just in time for some green flag pit stops on Lap 89. Musgrave had moved up to 7th at this point. With the fast pace set by both Busch and Hornaday, there were only 11 trucks left on the lead lap. Once things sorted themselves out after the pit stops, Hornaday had a 3.5 second lead over Busch.
On Lap 110, Caution #3 came out for rain. The
trucks circled around and finally went into the
pits on Lapp 113. Chad McCumbee took a
chance and stayed out to get the lead. This
made him a sitting duck on the restart. A lot of
teams had already used up there 3 sets of tires,
so some teams were having to re-use an earlier
set. On Lap 115, Busch was once again in the
lead with Hornaday caught back in lapped traffic.
Musgrave had worked up to 6th and Hornaday
was still running in second.
On Lap 120, Caution #4 came out for rain. They
went into the pits on Lap 123 and the race was
red flagged. Once the track was dry again, they
rolled them out and restarted again on Lap 126. Busch and Hornaday took off and were battling for the lead. Crafton, McCumbee, Skinner, and Musgrave were battling for 3rd going 3 wide. Back in the pack, they were going 2-4 wide. Busch pulled away from Hornaday, kept the lead and won. When the checkered flag dropped, there were only 9 trucks left on the lead lap.
Despite the black flag one the first lap, Musgrave finished 7th. He probably passed more trucks than anybody getting to that finishing position. Jon Wood had a 10th place finish, which is a big improvement over his finishes at Fontana and Daytona.
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