The No. 33 Steak-umm Chevrolet team earned their fourth top 10 finish of the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season bringing home a fourth-place finish during Friday night’s Bully Hill Vineyards 200 at Nashville Superspeedway. The Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) team had a disappointing ending as four-time champion Ron Hornaday fought to bring home the prestigious Gibson guitar that was on everyone’s mind coming into the 150-lap event.
The one-day event included two practice sessions for the series which saw a delayed start due to early morning rain showers. Hornaday finished both morning sessions third fastest on the speed charts. Early-evening qualifying at the 1.333-mile D-Shaped oval placed the Steak-umm Chevrolet eighth in the night’s starting lineup.
With the race under way, the veteran driver was picking through the field before teams began green-flag pit stops at lap 50. The No. 33 team brought the Silverado down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air-pressure adjustment on lap 52. After the field cycled through pit stops, Hornaday was back in the fourth-position when the first caution flag flew at lap 59 for debris on the track.
Hornaday reported his Chevrolet was tight getting into the corners but with strategy and mileage on their minds the team elected to stay out to maintain track position. When competition went back green on lap 63, Hornaday quickly took over the second position looking to chase down race leader Kyle Busch.
The evening’s second caution flag was brought out for oil on the track on lap 76. A quick clean-up led the field to a lap 79 restart where Hornaday maintained the second position. With what seemed to be another long green-flag run, the team started to prepare for their second and potentially could be their final pit stop of the night. Fortunately a debris caution was thrown at lap 103 which allowed teams to calculate the amount of fuel necessary to make it to the checkered flag.
The No. 33 pit crew delivered a solid performance on pit road during their second stop of the night taking four tires and enough fuel to make it to the end. Hornaday restarted in the third-position with 44 laps to go. Green-flag racing was halted once again when the No. 3 truck spun in turn two bringing out the fourth caution. With the debris picked up the field returned to action on lap 112 with Hornaday in the second position.
With 25 laps to go the radio was quiet as Hornaday was gaining ground the leader. With an accident in turn four involving three trucks on Lap 138, the field slowed and regrouped for the green-flag allowing Hornaday another shot to race for the lead. Moments after the field returned to full speed, the driver was able to take the lead on lap 144.
Unfortunately the caution flag came out one last time at lap 145 for another two-car incident which brought the field close together once again. When the green-flag signaled the restart at lap 147 Hornaday lost the lead to Busch. In the closing laps the driver felt he had a tire going down and slipped out of the second position. When the checkered flag waved, Hornaday and the No. 33 Steak-umm Chevrolet came across the finish line in fourth-place.
KHI PR
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