Busch wins as Hornaday, Harvick can't get together

LOUDON, N.H. -- Kyle Busch didn't have the fastest truck Saturday, and he had barely enough fuel to make it to the finish line. Neither circumstance prevented him from winning his third consecutive start in the Camping World Truck Series and his fifth race of the season.

Busch took the checkered flag in the Heluva Good! 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as points leader and runner-up Ron Hornaday and his team owner and third-place finisher, Kevin Harvick, battled for position behind him.

Heluva Good! 200

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet
3.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
4.	Matt Crafton	Chevrolet
5.	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet
6.	Stacy Compton	Toyota
7.	Brian Scott	Toyota
8.	Mike Skinner	Toyota
9.	Colin Braun	Ford
10.	Rick Crawford	Ford

• Complete Results | Photos

Race Video

• Final Laps: New Hampshire
• Victory Lane: Busch
• Post-Race Reactions
• KHI battle for second
• Fuller brings out red flag

Harvick believed Hornaday's failure to move over in favor of Harvick's faster truck in the closing laps -- which Harvick attributed to lack of communication between crew chiefs and spotters -- cost Kevin Harvick Inc. the victory.

Busch took on 4 seconds' worth of fuel during a splash-and-go, green-flag stop on Lap 172 of 200 and got back on track ahead of Hornaday, whose stop on Lap 170 had lasted almost twice as long. A debris caution on Lap 189 helped Busch conserve enough gas to get to the end of the race. His fuel cell hit "empty" as he approached Victory Lane.

"They told me we were going to be about five [laps] short [after the final stop]," said Busch, who finished .560 seconds ahead of Hornaday. "I was like, 'You're kidding me! We just stopped and filled this thing.' It barely made it. It ran out coming into Victory Lane there."

The gamble to try and make it on fuel paid off when Hornaday took too much fuel during his last pit stop, allowing Busch to grab the lead.

"I think we had a 5-second stop and it was maybe half a second too many," Hornaday said.

The fuel might turn out to be the least of Hornaday's problems.

He and Harvick, making a rare truck appearance, were dominant for most of the 200-lap race. They raced side-by-side for a stretch while Busch battled a wobbly right-front tire.

When Busch took the lead following the final pit stops from Harvick and Hornaday, it appeared Harvick wanted Hornaday to let him slide by so he could go catch Busch.

It never happened.

Several times Harvick appeared to get a decent run on Hornaday and each time Hornaday refused to budge, leaving Harvick screaming into the radio about a lack of communication between the teammates.

Harvick, who immediately after the race stomped over to Hornaday's truck and exchanged a few words with his friend and employee, expressed his displeasure.

"The communication between the spotter and the crew chief wasn't relayed to the driver very clear," Harvick said. "I felt like one of the two trucks should have won the race. I felt like we were a little bit better truck, but you can't put yourself in position to do something underneath him [Hornaday] that would be detrimental to his championship chase.

"It's just some things internally that we probably need to work on there. Second and third [Saturday} is still a good day, a good day for [Hornaday] in the championship race, but I feel like we didn't do what we needed to do."

Hornaday, who extended his lead in the series standings to 217 points over Crafton, said he wasn't aware of the problem until after the checkered flag.

"It was a good day -- until after the race," he said. "He [Harvick] got up to me three or four times and I backed off. He ran underneath me. I don't know if he was getting loose or whatever underneath me. I had older tires. I didn't have fresher tires. But I'll take second. ...

"I don't know what I done wrong.

Matt Crafton finished fourth, followed by series rookie Johnny Sauter. Stacy Compton, Brian Scott, Mike Skinner, Colin Braun and Rick Crawford completed the top 10.

The fireworks between Hornaday and Crafton that highlighted last week's race at Gateway never materialized. Crafton finished fourth but never challenged for the lead, though he did have a brief run-in with Harvick, who gave Crafton a little tap early in the race.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.