Saturday, October 27 Atlanta Speedway Atlanta, Georgia

Kyle "Rowdy" Busch celebrates with a burnout after winning the EasyCare 200.

Kyle Busch Powers to Truck Series Win at Atlanta
By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

HAMPTON, Ga. (October 27, 2007) -- Kyle Busch held off Ron Hornaday Jr. in an eight-lap green-flag run to the finish Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway to win the EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

Less than one lap after the race's final restart on Lap 123, Busch powered from third to first, passing Hornaday for the lead at the start/finish line. In winning for the first time in eight starts this year -- and for the fifth time in his career -- Busch became the first repeat winner in the series at Atlanta.

Hornaday finished .971 seconds behind the race winner and regained the series points lead by four over Mike Skinner with three events left on the schedule. Johnny Benson recovered from a pit road speeding penalty to run third. Mark Martin was fourth, followed by Skinner, who restarted 17th after a pit stop on Lap 51 and worked his way back into the top five.

As Benson battled Hornaday for the lead moments after the Lap 123 restart, Busch moved to outside and charged past both competitors by the time he got back to the stripe.

"I just kept it up on the middle of the track, and Johnny gave me some room to the outside," Busch said. "Then I held it to the floor for (eight) laps."

The final 30 laps were interrupted by two cautions, the first of which saved Busch from coming to the pits under the green flag. The yellow flag flew on Lap 105, after a tap from Ted Musgrave sent Jack Sprague's No. 60 Toyota spinning into the inside wall on the backstretch.

The caution was serendipitous for Busch, who had just been black-flagged because the window net on his No. 51 Chevrolet had worked loose from its fasteners. Busch took advantage of a pit stop under yellow to correct the problem, restarted sixth and had worked his way up to third by the time Chad McCumbee's No. 8 Chevy leaked oil onto the asphalt and brought out the fifth and final caution of the race.

"It busted loose completely, and I was trying to hold it up so nobody could tell," said Busch, who was driving with one hand while trying to re-clip the window net with the other. "Luckily, the caution came out, and that saved our race."

Hornaday regained the points lead after losing it to Skinner last week at Martinsville. With Travis Kvapil 320 points behind the leader in third place, it's a two-driver race for the title.

"Ron Hornaday brought a truck home without a scratch," marveled the runner-up. "And look at Skinner. He's back in the top five. We're going to have to race as hard as we can every week to try to stay ahead of him."

Complete race results and point standings in the Event Stats section below...

Broadcast Times

• Practice: Friday, October 26 (SPEED at 3 p.m./AT)
• Qualifying: Saturday, October 27 (SPEED at 10:30 a.m./AT)
• Pre-Race Show: Saturday, October 27 (SPEED at 1:30 p.m./AT)
• Race: Saturday, October 27 (SPEED at 2 p.m. AT)

Event Stats PDF files unless noted otherwise

Entry List

Race Results

Point Standings

Green Flag Fast Facts
The Race: EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200
The Place: Atlanta Motor Speedway
Track Layout: 1.54-mile oval
Race Purse: $548,555
2006 Winner: Mike Bliss
2006 Pole: Mike Skinner
Schedule (local track time): Friday: Practice 12 noon -1:15 p.m.; Rookie practice 1:30-2:00 p.m.; Final practice 2:20-3:20 p.m. Saturday: Qualifying 9:45 a.m.
Year-To-Date Standings: click here

Track Map



Green Flag Notes

• Few competitors in the 12-plus seasons of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series have battled each other more ferociously than Mike Skinner (No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota) and Ron Hornaday Jr. (No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet). Don’t expect anything less as the fight for the 2007 championship likely will go down to the final lap of the last race on Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But you’d be wrong to believe the competition continues after the checkered flag falls. In fact, the two might have the tightest friendship in the garage, a championship fight notwithstanding. “I think if it comes down to one of us wrecking each other to win the championship, it’s just not going to be the same,” said Skinner, who edged Hornaday for the 1995 crown but lost to him in 1996. “Ron and I have been buddies for a long time. We’ve wrecked each other and went back (to the motor coach) and had a beer together.” Hornaday, who also won the title in 1998, agrees. “I know Mike isn’t going to go out there and wreck me on purpose and I am not going to do it to him,” he said. “We are going to get into each other. We have four races left and we are going to race hard. But we are smart enough to know that when we walk out the gate, we aren’t going to carry it forward to next week. We are going to go out there and race our trucks to their potential and run hard.”
• The competition for the 10th and final place on the stage at the Nov. 19 Champion’s Awards Banquet in Hollywood, Fla., is as hot – or even hotter – than the one for the title itself. Jack Sprague (No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota) held the position by finishing second in the Kroger 200 but that doesn’t mean Sprague is safe by any means. David Starr (No. 10 International MAXXFORCE Diesel Ford) is just 22 points back in 11th. Complicating matters are eighth and ninth places. The trio of Matt Crafton (No. 88 Menards Chevrolet), Erik Darnell (No. 99 Northern Tool+Equipment Ford) and Sprague are separated by six points.
• The newest member of the Circle Bar Racing team has played No. 2 to veteran Rick Crawford (No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel Ford) through most of the season – but not on Saturday. Starr finished fourth to Crawford’s fifth marking the first time the Texan had beaten his teammate when each finished among the top five. It was a nice way to celebrate Starr’s 40th birthday that fell on the same Saturday as the Kroger 200.
• Mark Martin (No. 21 Bubba Burgers/Bush’s Beans Ford) won six times in 2006 but has yet to reach Victory Lane this season. Atlanta will be his final start in the Wood Brothers/JTG Racing entry and could break a tie among crew chiefs. Martin’s crew chief, John Monsam, has won with five different drivers – a series record matched earlier this year by Rick Ren, crew chief for driver Ron Hornaday Jr. at Kevin Harvick Inc.
• Atlanta’s defending winner Mike Bliss won’t drive the No. 16 Strutmasters.com Ford because of NASCAR Busch Series commitments. “The biggest difference between last year when we won the race at Atlanta and this year going into Atlanta is that we are in more of a driver training mode now,” said crew chief and Xpress Motorsports general manager Dave Fuge. His driver, Brian Scott, will be making his AMS debut.
• As the only competitor to drive a Toyota in all 96 races from 2004 to present, Mike Skinner was the appropriate driver to lock up the truck maker’s second Manufacturers’ Championship. His Kroger 200 victory was the 11th of the year for Toyota – only one fewer than last season’s 12 contributing to the manufacturer’s first title. “Winning this manufacturers’ title during the same month as Toyota’s 50th anniversary in the United States makes it even more special,” said Jim Aust, Vice President – Motorsports, Toyota Motor Sales USA. Each of the series’ four brands has won back-to-back championships.

IMPORTANT: All information, schedules and/or scheduled events is/are subject to change without notice. Please check with the source to confirm.