“I’ve wanted to win a truck race here for a long time,” Kyle Busch said in Victory Lane following the WinStar World Casino 350, celebrating his 50th NASCAR win. 

Busch stepped up the first rung on his proverbial ladder of his Texas Motor Speedway trifecta this weekend. He will race Saturday in the Nationwide Series and again in the Sprint Cup Series on Sunday.

Busch’s 0.725-second victory over Matt Crafton extended his winning streak to five since last August’s race at Bristol.

Busch led the final 50 laps and battled the series’ toughest Texas wranglers for the victory Friday night. He gave the “horns” to the point’s leader Ron Hornaday with a Talladega-esque bump.

“I didn’t mean to get into him that hard, bottom line,” Busch said.

Crafton and Todd Bodine also had their shots at the driver they call “Rowdy.”

Tires were the talk of the race until crunch time. With less than 13 laps to go, Hornaday was running in the third position when it dawned on both diver and team that they might not have enough fuel to make the finish.

Post-race, Hornaday said, “We’ll take a third.” 

There was no hiding his dismay over having to save the truck from Busch’s bump-draft move on lap 97.  However, Hornaday leaves Texas with a 197-point lead over second-place Crafton.

Should the No. 33 KHI Chevrolet finish 22nd or better in the remaining two races of the season, the championship will be mathematically unobtainable for anyone else.

Busch and team were more than four laps ahead of fuel requirements to end the race and finished well ahead of Hornaday and Crafton, who finished the race in second.

“I wanted to win tonight” Crafton said. “I thought I could catch him or get really close to him, but I had to conserve fuel.”

Rounding out the top ten were Todd Bodine in fourth, Colin Braun fifth, Johnny Sauter sixth, Brian Scott seventh, Mike Skinner eighth, David Starr ninth and Rick Crawford tenth.

The Truck Series takes on the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway for the Lucas Oil 150 next weekend.  KHI poses a threat to upset the owner and driver point’s standings, with owner/driver Kevin Harvick is assumed to be returning to a truck ride to defend his win last year.