Hornaday dominates at Milwaukee for birthday win

WEST ALLIS, Wis. -- Happy birthday, Ron Hornaday.

The Kevin Harvick Inc. driver dominated Saturday's rescheduled Copart 200 Camping World Truck Series race, winning on his 51st birthday.

"It's a cool day," Hornaday said. "What'd they [say], 'How old are you?' I don't know. I'm in my 50s, now, I guess."

Copart 200

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet
2.	Dennis Setzer	Chevrolet
3.	Brian Scott	Toyota
4.	Todd Bodine	Toyota
5.	James Buescher	Ford
6.	Stacy Compton	Toyota
7.	Tayler Malsam	Toyota
8.	Colin Braun	Ford
9.	David Starr	Toyota
10.	Terry Cook	Toyota

• Results | Videos | Photos

It was the 41st career Truck victory and second win of the season for Hornaday (watch video) -- and his second career victory in a Trucks race at Milwaukee, where he also won in 1997.

Hornaday led 180 of the race's 200 laps and easily beat Dennis Setzer. The race was postponed from Friday night after heavy rain struck the Milwaukee area.

"I hate to tell you but I don't think the truck was that good," Hornaday said.

Say what?

"I think we were just that much better than the rest of them," Hornaday said.

Whatever the case, Hornaday was the class of the field, as crew chief Rick Ren made numerous adjustments after Friday's practice to propel Hornaday to dominance.

"You just can't expect to be as good as we were [Saturday]," Ren said. "But it sure is a darn nice feeling."

Hornaday took control of the race early, passing Matt Crafton on the third lap and pulling away. Disaster nearly struck when a caution came out for Aric Almirola's spin (watch video) on Lap 127, after Hornaday had pitted his No. 33 Chevrolet.

But Hornaday was fast enough to remain on the lead lap, and after the other seven trucks on the lead lap pitted, Hornaday was back in the lead. Mike Skinner wasn't as fortunate. He got caught in the pits and eventually lost two laps to the leaders and finished 19th.

Hornaday continued to lead comfortably before a late caution flag (watch video) bunched up the field for a restart with eight laps to go. But Hornaday squirted away from Setzer when the green flag dropped, and he wasn't challenged for the lead the rest of the way (watch video).

The win also allowed Hornaday to take the series points lead from Crafton, who finished 16th. Hornaday leaves Milwaukee with a 36-point lead over Crafton in the standings -- not that he thinks it matters in midseason.

"I'll worry about the points with five races to go," Hornaday said.

Setzer finished 1 second behind Hornaday (watch video). Brian Scott finished third with a broken right wrist, with Todd Bodine fourth and James Buescher fifth.

It's not the first checkered flag-themed birthday celebration for Hornaday, who also won a Truck Series race on his birthday at Bristol in 1998. However, there was no burnout on this day.

"We're saving dimes right now," Hornaday said.

Now that GM has cut back funding to its NASCAR teams across the board, including the Chevrolet team Hornaday drives for, any potential cost-saving measure has to be looked at -- even the way drivers celebrate wins.

Hornaday said his team owner, Cup driver Kevin Harvick and his wife, DeLana, are doing everything they can to keep the team competitive in the wake of GM's budget cuts.

"I think Kevin and DeLana were ready for this, and we're all buckling down," Hornaday said.

• Note: Hornaday dedicated the victory to his wife's mother, who has been in the hospital all week. "This is probably the eighth race in 30-some years me and my wife's been married that she's missed," he said. "Her mom is really deathly sick, and she's been in the hospital all week long ... all she wanted to know was when I was going to race, and she kept calling. Hopefully, this will boost her up a little bit."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.