Martinsville, VA (My Sportsbook) - Kevin Harvick tapped Kyle Busch out of the way for the lead with 11 laps to go and then held off teammate Ron Hornaday Jr. in a green-white-checkered finish to win Monday's rain-delayed Kroger 250 Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
Busch led a race-high 139 laps, but Harvick chased down his fellow Sprint Cup competitor within the final 25 laps. After the two made contact in the closing stages, Harvick made the pass and grabbed the top spot for the first time. Busch suffered minor damage from the contact.
When a caution came with less than eight laps to go for an incident involving Norm Benning and Hermie Sadler, Busch was penalized for crossing the pit-road commitment line.
Hornaday moved up to the second position for the final two-lap shootout, but could not catch Harvick before the race ended under caution.
"We got to push and shove a little bit," Harvick said. "Kyle and I race hard there at the end. I didn't know if any of us were going to make it on gas."
Harvick recorded his fourth career victory in the series. His most recent win came in November at Phoenix.
Hornaday had to overcome a few incidents though. On the opening lap, Shane Sieg, who started on the outside pole, had problems on the start when his truck did not get up to speed. Hornaday bumped into the back of him, with Hornaday's truck sustaining slight damage to the front bumper.
Hornaday also spun out Johnny Benson while the two were battling for the second position on lap 49.
During a caution for debris with less than 120 laps to go, Hornaday made a pit stop for new tires, which put him back in the field. He rallied for a second- place run, giving Kevin Harvick Inc. a one-two finish at Martinsville.
"We had a pretty good truck," Hornaday said. "I used it a little bit to get back through there, and then watching Kyle and Kevin running pretty hard, I figure I would just save it, and then I ran back up on them. I was so worried about (Mike) Skinner on the restart and laid back too far and let Kevin get away."
Mike Skinner finished third, followed by Benson and Rick Crawford, who started on the pole and led the first 78 laps.
Stacy Compton, Dennis Setzer, Brian Scott, Matt Crafton and Ken Schrader completed the top-10.
Busch ended up finishing 17th and quickly left the race track in disgust. He had won the last two races at Atlanta and California. Busch remained the leader in the series standings, with a 38-point advantage over Todd Bodine, who finished 18th.
Bodine was involved in two separate accidents. While Harvick passed him for second place on lap 174, he nearly lost control and then made contact with the wall. He experienced a tire rub on the right front. Bodine and Terry Cook spun and crashed on the second to last lap, which ended the event.
The next race is scheduled for Saturday, April 25 at Kansas Speedway.