Harvick leads 187 laps, easily wins truck race at Martinsville

Harvick dominates truck race at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Kevin Harvick pulled away from teammate Ron Hornaday Jr. on a restart with 19 laps to go to win his second consecutive truck series victory.

Harvick led 187 laps Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.

“Today was just a lot of fun for me,” he aid.

Harvick asserted his dominance all race long, but especially on a restart with 43 laps to go. As the race went back to green, Timothy Peters was just to Harvick’s outside and Johnny Sauter was right behind him.

As Harvick pulled away, Peters and Sauter dueled for second for several laps, with four-time series champion Hornaday and Mike Skinner joining the battle.

Harvick had built his lead to more than 4 seconds when Hornaday bumped Sauter from behind on the 222nd lap, sending Sauter and Skinner out of contention and bringing another caution.

The 11th yellow flag of the race forced Harvick to show one more time that he had the best truck, this time with teammate Hornaday to his inside and Peters directly behind him. He did it with ease, moving in front of Hornaday immediately and winning by 1.552 seconds.

“The boss said he’s taking the outside and I better give him the spot,” Hornaday said.

Hornaday, the defending series champion, bounced back after finishing 27th and 34th in the first two races to finish second, followed by Brian Ickler, Peters and Johnny Benson.

Not everyone was thrilled with Hornaday’s finish.

After the race, Sauter pulled his truck alongside Hornaday’s on pit road and confronted Hornaday with NASCAR officials watching.

“I can’t say nothing,” Hornaday said later. “I spun him out. That’s all there is to it.”

Sauter finished 15th, and Skinner was 27th.

“It’s all good,” Sauter said.

Saturday’s win was Harvick’s eighth victory in the truck series and fourth in his last four starts.

“Winning four races in a row, that’s pretty cool,” Harvick said.

It was also, he hopes, the start of a great weekend. Harvick will start on the pole on the 0.526-mile oval in Sunday’s Cup race.

Unlike the truck series, Harvick has struggled in the Cup series on this track, earning just seven top-10 finishes in 17 career starts and never finishing better than seventh.

“I guess my cars haven’t been as fast as my trucks,” he said.