It was a midweek battle for the Camping World Truck Series as they headed to Bristol Motor Speedway for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 200.
Kevin Harvick was looking for his third win in a row on Wednesday night at BMS after winning at Pocono and Michigan the last two weeks.
Elliott Sadler would earn the pole and Kevin Harvick Inc. driver and new dad Nelson Piquet, Jr. would start on the front row.
3 in a row…
Harvick had one of the best trucks late in the race and he and his team were able to out run the competition again. Harvick hadn’t run a truck race at BMS since 2004. While Sadler and Kyle Busch were trading paint and others were miscalculating on fuel, eventual winner Harvick mastered BMS.
The tire compound that the trucks were running on allowed them to literally only change tires once. So it was important that the crews were packing the truck full of fuel. His pit crew did their job and as Harvick said in victory lane won him the race.
Immediate Payback
The tension between Kevin Harvick and Busch is evident. You can sense it on TV; clearly these two don’t like how they race each other. So coming into BMS many expected that Harvick and Busch would not only be battling for the win but they would be battling each other far harder than anyone else.
On lap 117, it was Harvick’s employer Sadler who ended up tangling with Busch. Busch retaliated and spun out Sadler and after exiting his truck Busch said Sadler was given team orders even though Sadler wasn’t even running a KHI truck tonight.
Sadler was able to battle back for a top 10 finish in ninth but the battle between Harvick and Busch is clearly far from over.
Early troubles…
Ron Hornaday, Jr. qualified fourth but a very loose race truck saw him struggle early on in the race. On lap five James Buescher was trying to pass him when Hornaday got loose. He spun right in front of the field and suffered left front damage to his truck. He would end up finishing 24th and dropping to ninth in the points.
Hornaday needed a solid point’s race to climb back into the championship hunt. Instead, he lost ground with just 10 races left in the season.
Lug Nuts…
- Rookie, Joey Coulter finished sixth. He was the highest finishing rookie in the race.
- Series leader Johnny Sauter ran out of laps running down Harvick. He finished second and now leads the points by just seven.
- Todd Bodine has gained some momentum since the merger with Randy Moss Motorsports. He has finished no worse than 12th since Iowa including a third place finish at BMS.
Next up for the CWTS is Atlanta Motor Speedway next Friday, 8pm ET on SPEED.
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