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Kyle Busch The NASCAR Truck Victor At Texas
If Kyle Busch enters a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, odds are better than 50-50 he'll win -- at least where the 2009 season is concerned.
Busch led the final 50 laps of Friday night's WinStar World Casino 350 at Texas Motor Speedway and won his fifth straight race in as many starts in the series.
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The victory was Busch's seventh in 13 starts this season, the 16th of his career and his first at the 1.5-mile track. Matt Crafton ran second, .995 seconds behind Busch at the finish. Ron Hornaday Jr. came home third and left Texas with a 197-point lead over second-place Crafton in the series standings.
Hornaday can wrap up the series championship with finishes of 22nd or better in the final two events.
Todd Bodine ran fourth and Colin Braun fifth.
"It's an accomplishment to beat the 33 bunch (Hornaday) here, that's for sure," Busch said. "And we got it done today. I really hate to see the 88 (Crafton) finish second to me. I wish he could get a win."
Crafton acknowledged it would be difficult to pick up the second victory of his career and his first of the year as long as Busch keeps entering races.
"I'm going to lock him in his motor home and take him out of the equation," Crafton joked.
Busch passed Hornaday for the lead on Lap 98 after bumping Hornaday's No. 33 Chevrolet on the backstretch. As Busch pulled away, Hornaday told crew chief Rick Ren to tell the No. 51 team that Talladega (where bump-drafting is commonplace) was last week.
By Lap 114, Crafton had passed Hornaday for the second position, as Hornaday fought a loose handling condition in his race truck. Crafton gradually closed on Busch, but the driver of the No. 51 Tundra maintained a lead of close to one second over his pursuer for the final 30 laps, as Crafton tried to save fuel in his No. 88 Chevrolet.
Busch, who has won the last three NASCAR Nationwide Series races at Texas, will try for the second leg of a possible weekend triple in the O'Reilly Challenge race on Saturday. He'll start sixth. On Sunday, Busch starts fifth in the Dickies 500, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
"It would be pretty awesome to get 'em all three done here at Texas," Busch said. "I've wanted to win a truck race here for a long time, so this is pretty cool, and as soon as I get a Cup win here, another one will get knocked off the list."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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