Joe Gibbs Driven

Busch used a late-race pit stop for four tires to propel him to his second consecutive series victory and eighth overall for truck owner Billy Ballew. Crew chief Wauters made the call and Busch knew immediately it was the right one. "How many times have I done that here already and won the race? Twice," said Busch of Wauters's decision to call him in to get tires near the end of the race. "We knew that it was going to be the deal. I was kind of surprised when nobody followed me."

The strategic advantage proved key, because while Busch's Miccosukee Resorts Toyota Tundra was fast, for the first 115 of the scheduled 130 laps, he played second fiddle to three-time and defending NCTS Champion Ron Hornaday Jr., who dominated the night's proceedings. Starting from the pole, Hornaday and his Kevin Harvick Inc.-owned Camping World Chevrolet Silverado led 81 of the first 115 laps around the 1.54-mile AMS oval.

While Busch challenged Hornaday and passed him a couple of times in the race's early stages, Hornaday clearly had the fastest truck all night long and appeared headed to an easy victory, at least until Mother Nature intervened.

With just 19 laps remaining, rain fell to bring out the night's third caution flag. With the field running on old tires in the largely caution-free race, Busch was in second place when he decided to pit for four fresh tires on Lap 113. That forced Hornaday's hand as he knew he'd be a sitting duck without fresh rubber himself, so he pitted one lap later.

Chad McCumbee in the Malcolmson Construction Chevy and Matt Crafton in the Menards/Energizer Chevy chose to stay out, and took over the lead under caution ahead of Busch, Ted Musgrave's Team ASE/Harris Trucking Toyota and Hornaday, who lost critical track position in the pits, falling to fifth.

On the restart on Lap 116, Busch and his fresh tires quickly dispatched McCumbee and Crafton to take a lead he would never surrender, while Hornaday got stuck in traffic for a couple of laps. Hornaday finally broke free and was about 2 seconds behind Busch but starting to close when the rains fell again to bring out first a yellow flag on Lap 121 and then a red flag.

Fortunately, the showers were brief and the asphalt was quickly dried. The track went green with four laps to go and Busch sprinted away to an easy victory, his third at the track and second in a row at Atlanta. Hornaday, who had a truck that was best on long runs, held on for second place, ahead of Mike Skinner's Toyota-sponsored Tundra, Crafton and McCumbee.

Busch lauded his crew for a spate of early race adjustments when the handling went away on his truck. "Man, we had the hood up on this thing, we had the track bar down eight rounds, we had four rounds in the left rear. I don't even know what else we did," said a jubilant Busch.

Understandably, Hornaday was miffed at the notion that he truly was the class of the field, but had to settle for the runner-up slot. "We had a truck that would run on long runs. Busch beat me here last time on a green-white-checkered (finish)," said the three-time series champion. "This is so much fun to race like this, but second really sucks."

Considerably happier was Skinner, who made a late-race charge and earned his first top-five of the season. "We had about a fourth- or fifth-place truck and we finished third, so it was a good night for us," he said.

On the heels of his second consecutive victory, Busch now leads the NCTS points standings by 72 points over Todd Bodine and 122 over Hornaday. McCumbee is fourth, 140 back, and Johnny Benson dropped two positions back to fifth after a blown right-front tire sent him into the wall early in the race.

See All News Articles >