Busch hangs on for victory

LOUDON, N.H. -- Kyle Busch kept looking in his mirror, expecting to see Kevin Harvick on his bumper ready to challenge for the lead.

One problem: Harvick couldn't get one of his best employees to get out of the way.

Busch managed to stretch his fuel over the final 60 laps and took advantage of a communication breakdown between Harvick and Ron Hornaday to pick up his fifth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the season and third in his last three starts.

Not bad day for a truck Busch admits wasn't the best on the 1.058-mile oval at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

"I was going to be all right with a second or third, that's the truck that we had," said Busch, a Las Vegas native. "But you've got to let things play out sometimes, and today we did."

Things turned Busch's way after Harvick and Hornaday kept wrangling over second place. The two spent most of the final 50-plus laps racing side-by-side, with Hornaday seemingly unwilling to let his boss slip by.

At one point, Harvick shouted at his spotter and crew chief over the radio and later gave Hornaday a not-so friendly tap on the bumper as a warning.

Hornaday, in the middle of a title race, still wouldn't let Harvick pass, rebuffing him at every opportunity.

A visibly steamed Harvick walked over to Hornaday's truck on pit road after the race, leaned inside and gave Hornaday, who was looking for his third straight win at New Hampshire, an earful.

"I felt like one of the two trucks should have won the race," Harvick said. "I felt like we were in a little bit better shape ... just some things internally we probably need to work on there."

Harvick thought the plan was simple. He wanted to pass Hornaday on the outside, not wanting to chance getting loose and wrecking them both if he tried to pass on the inside.

Yet Hornaday wouldn't budge, a fact Harvick blamed on the inability of the spotter and crew chief to relay the plans to Hornaday.

Hornaday wasn't sure what exactly the problem was and didn't appear to be too worried about ticking off his employer.

"It was a good day until after the race, I guess," he said.

Hornaday led 101 laps and was able to stretch his lead over Matt Crafton to 217 points with six races remaining.

"I just ran as hard as I could," Hornaday said. "I was racing, I guess, I don't know."

It wasn't good enough to overcome Busch, who has now won a Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck race at New Hampshire.

This one wasn't easy. At one point, Busch worried that debris on the front of the truck was causing the engine to overheat. The piece of plastic finally fell away, but a wobbly right front tire and fuel worries left things very much in doubt.

Crew chief Richie Wauters estimated Busch was probably five laps short on fuel, but a late caution and the infighting between Hornaday and Harvick allowed Busch to pull away.

"I kept waiting to get run over at the restart," Busch said.

He didn't, and instead continued his mastery of the truck series. The 24-year-old has five wins and 10 top-10 finishes in 11 starts this year.

Though he did eventually run out of gas, it was not until he was on his way to Victory Lane.

"The kid is amazing," Wauters said.

Pole-sitter Mike Skinner faded to eighth after a quick start.

• NHRA -- Two-time champion Larry Dixon handled the Top Fuel field to earn the No. 1 qualifying position for today's NHRA Carolinas Nationals, the first race in the NHRA's six-race playoff.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 19th of 24 races in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series were Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

Dixon, a two-time world champion (2001-02) who finished the regular season in second place, earned the No. 1 spot with a 3.844-second pass at 313.66 mph in Saturday's first session.