Ron Hornaday Jr. won the O’Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park. It was Hornaday’s second win at Memphis. He won the inaugural Memphis race in 1998. He now has recorded five top-six finishes in six Memphis races.
It was Hornaday’s third win in 2008. He also won at Kansas and Texas. Hornaday scored his series-record 36th victory in his 212th start. It also was his series-leading 18th short-track victory.
Hornaday led a Memphis-record 139 laps, including the last 129. He started third. All 11 Memphis races have been won from a top-10 starting position.
Pole winner and pre-race points leader Johnny Benson led the first 43 laps before being passed by Hornaday. Benson’s transmission got stuck between gears on the Lap 83 restart, leading to engine failure, which resulted in his first DNF of the season.
Hornaday climbed from fourth to first in the points standings. He has a 27-point lead over Matt Crafton, who finished third.
Benson’s 33rd-place finish dropped him to fourth in the point standings, 56 markers behind Hornaday. Todd Bodine (14th) lost a spot to third place, 54 behind first. Rick Crawford remains in fifth place.
It was the fifth win in 2008 for Chevrolet. Toyota also has five, while Ford and Dodge have one each.
Brian Scott (13th) had the best finish of the five Raybestos Rookie candidates in the field. He also had the best starting position, sixth, among the rookies.(ESPN)(7-1-2008)
