Bristol, TN (My Sportsbook) - Kyle Busch won the O'Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway for the second year in a row and prevented Ron Hornaday Jr. from extending his record to six consecutive victories in the Camping World Truck Series.
Busch dominated the second half of Wednesday's 200-lap race, as he led the final 75 laps and held off Matt Crafton by nearly three seconds for his third truck victory this season -- and first since March, at Atlanta.
"I love this place," Busch said. "It's a fun place to race. For some reason, I've really taken to the new surface."
Busch has mastered the .533-mile track, leading more than 1,400 laps combined in NASCAR's three national touring series here.
Earlier this week, Busch was reunited with crew chief Richie Wauters, who guided him to victory in last year's truck race at Bristol. While Wauters came on board with Billy Ballew Motorsports' No.51 Toyota, Doug George, who had served as Busch's crew chief this season, moved over to the No.15 Toyota, with Aric Almirola taking the wheel at Bristol.
"It feels great," Wauters said. "Anytime Kyle and I get together, we know we can win races."
Busch, who joined Hornaday as the only repeat winners at Bristol, capitalized on an early-race pit strategy when he was the first to pit again for fuel after taking tires. Hornaday also came in for fuel, but did so one lap after Busch.
Hornaday ran among the top-10 throughout the race before ending up with a third-place finish.
"We just run into so much bad luck here," said Hornaday, whose last win at Bristol came in 1998. "When [Busch] pitted and then came right back for fuel, that's what hurt us right there. We lost so much track position, and it was my own fault. I should have been paying more attention."
Earlier this month at Nashville, Hornaday became the first driver to win five races in a row in NASCAR since 1971. Richard Petty and Bobby Allison both did it in the Cup Series that year. Petty holds the NASCAR record with 10 straight Cup wins in 1967.
"Overall, five in a row, I got to thank all the fans and whatever they have been writing," Hornaday said. "It's been a lot of fun, so now we can start all over again."
Hornaday's lead in the series is now 211 points over Crafton.
Ryan Newman, the pole sitter, finished fourth, followed by Brian Scott.
Almirola, David Starr, T.J. Bell, Stacy Compton and Timothy Peters completed the top-10.
Jason White led a race-high 86 laps, but dropped back in the field after making his first pit stop with under 50 laps to go. White wound up 14th.