Martinsville II: Kyle Busch race report

Busch Just Misses First Victory at Martinsville
Z-Line Designs Driver Leads Twice for 28 Laps but Can't Hold Off Hornaday on Late Restart

Ron Hornaday Jr., got past Kyle Busch late in Saturday's Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, forcing Busch to settle for a disappointing second-place finish at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Busch, who led twice for 28 laps, appeared on his way to victory, but Hornaday slipped past the Z-Line Designs driver just prior to the final caution of the day on lap 198. The race, which was scheduled for 200 laps, was then extended to 206 circuits due to a green-white-checker finish, and Hornaday managed to stay ahead for the final two-lap sprint after the lap-204 restart. He finished .305 of a second ahead of Busch's No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Tundra.

"It was normal Martinsville, just don't know how to find speed when you need it," Busch said. "Overall, just a good day. We ran real competitive. We were right behind the 2 (Kevin Harvick) and the 33 (Hornaday) for most of it, trying to make our way back up to the front. Once getting there, just too tight. We just couldn't get the thing to roll the center of the corner the way it needed to roll the center of the corner. Just got beat. We'll go on to next week, I guess."

Busch was looking to score his first-ever NASCAR victory at the .526-mile Martinsville oval. Of the 29 tracks that will host NASCAR's top three divisions in 2010, Busch has competed at 28 of them at least once, and has won at 24 of them. The only track at where NASCAR's top three series compete and Busch has not raced is Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. In addition to Martinsville, the three other venues where Busch has raced but has not scored a victory are Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

"I'm disappointed we couldn't get a win for Z-Line Designs and Jim and Monica Sexton," Busch said. "They've obviously been huge for me on the Nationwide side and they've come on board for a few Truck Series races. We'll try to get them a win at Phoenix."

While Busch is not running the full Camping World Truck Series schedule, the No. 18 Toyota is competing for the owner's title and it remained second in the championship standings, 39 points behind the first-place No. 30 truck of Germain Racing, the same deficit with which it started the day.

For Hornaday, it was his 47th career Truck Series victory, his second of the season and his first at Martinsville.

Finishing behind Hornaday and Busch was Todd Bodine in the third spot, while Jason White and Aric Almirola completed the top-five. The rest of the top-10 consisted of Mike Skinner, David Starr, Stacy Compton, Ricky Carmichael and Matt Crafton.

The race featured 11 caution periods for 59 laps with four drivers failing to finish the 108.356-mile event.

The Camping World Truck Series next takes to the track next Saturday, Oct. 30, for the Mountain Dew 250 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

-source: jgr