Avondale, AZ - Kevin Harvick took his No. 4 Longhorn Silverado to victory lane at Phoenix International Raceway for the fourth time in the last five years. At the same time, he celebrated with dual burnouts down the front straightaway alongside his Kevin Harvick, Inc. driver Ron Hornaday, Jr. who made history by becoming the first four-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) champion.
Hornaday secured the unprecedented feat with a fourth place finish in tonight's race. Heading in to the season's final race next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the battle for the 2009 NCWTS owners' title is still undecided. DeLana Harvick holds a 60-point lead over second place.
“ I couldn’t think of a better track and I love Phoenix," said the newly-crowned champion. "This is a compliment to the team. It takes a lot of people to do this, all the guys back at the shop. Just had another great truck Mark Smith with the motor program and what he has done and with Chevrolet and everything they do including the wind tunnel and all their support and Pratt and Miller. It just takes a bunch of people and I am just fortunate enough that my wife and I are old enough that we are just at the race track and having fun.”
Johnny Sauter, No. 13 Fun Sand/Rodney Atkins/Curb Records Silverado finished fifth in the race scheduled for 150-laps but a caution on lap 149 forced the race in to overtime for a green-white-checkered finish.
Matt Crafton, No. 88 Australian Gold/Menards Silverado, finished eighth to give Team Chevy four of the top-10 finishers in tonight's race. Crafton is second in the standings, 150 points ahead of third place as the season winds down to one race to go.
Kyle Busch (Toyota) and Aric Almirola (Toyota) finished second and third respectively.
The final event of the 2009 season will November 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES
LUCAS OIL 150
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
NOVEMBER 13, 2009
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 LONGHORN SILVERADO, RACE WINNER: “Kind of wanked it there in the beginning and spun out. I don’t know what happened there but the end result was I spun. I just want to thank everybody from Longhorn and KHI (Kevin Harvick, Inc.), Chevrolet, VFW, Rheem and all of these fans for coming out and supporting everything that we do. This Truck Series is a lot of fun to race in. Got to have a little bit of fun with Kyle (Busch) there at the end head to head. That is always fun so. So, great truck. Hopefully we can do the same thing next week.”
HOW MUCH FUN IS IT TO HAVE A GREAT TRUCK? “It is pretty awesome to have a vehicle like this. I mean, from the time we unloaded it, it was just flat awesome.
“To have (Ron) Hornaday clinch the drivers’ championship and me win the race is pretty cool. I mean we got to do twin burnouts out there. I couldn’t hardly do a burnout; he definitely had me topped on that one. I couldn’t get my tires spinning. That was not good. But it was pretty cool anyway.”
TALK ABOUT RON’S FOURTH CHAMPIONSHIP: “Well Ron has been the catalyst of everything that has turned this team in to championship caliber. You know you don’t have worry about what is happening from the driver’s seat, you know that everything is coming out of the driver’s seat that is absolutely possible. From there, we have built a team around him that was capable of giving him the trucks that he needed. Like I said, he gets everything out of them that he can. It is fun to watch and Ron is a great friend of mine. Meant a lot to me coming up through my career. To win a second championship with him is pretty cool.”
RON HORNADAY, JR., NO. 33 VFW SILVERADO, FINISHED FOURTH AND CROWNED 2009 NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES CHAMPION, THE FIRST FOUR-TIME SERIES CHAMPION: “We aren’t done yet. We have to get the owner’s title too. Kyle (Busch) is pretty close to us. KHI, I can’t say enough for them. These trucks are awesome. I don’t know what happened during the pit stop, but for them to rally back…and Rick Ren (crew chief) with that short gas just to keep us out in front of that No. 88. It is so much fun to drive for Kevin and DeLana (Harvick), I can’t believe. VFW, Copart, Longhorn, I can just sit here and name everybody, it has been great. Turtle Wax, Georgia Boots, Miller Welders, thank you for all the help. Wiley X, Indian Motorcycles. It is unbelievable. This is a lot of fun.
“I am glad Kevin won this race, that is cool. This is a compliment to the team. It takes a lot of people to do this, all the guys back at the shop. Just had another great truck.
“Our favorite truck got wrecked, it really ran good here. These guys brought this truck back, I knew I didn’t have a winning truck, but I had to play it smart in points.”
A GREAT START TO THE SEASON, CONSISTENT, FIVE WINS IN A ROW MID-SEASON, HOW DID YOU STAY FOCUSED DURING THE LAST HALF OF THE SEASON? “We had the post lead and then we ended up wrecking at Dover. These guys never say quit. Kevin kept building me new truck each week. Kevin had a brand new truck here which will be for 2010. He is going to run one next week. I can’t say enough for everyone.
“Jack Sprague, buddy, I wish you were out here racing me. I got four so now you have to come back and get another one.
“This is unbelievable. Four. We still have hard work to do. Kyle is pretty tough. We have to stick with him at Homestead to get that owner’s”
MATT CRAFTON, NO. 88 AUSTRALIAN GOLD/MENARDS SILVERADO, FINISHED 8TH: NOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU GUYS WERE LOOKING FOR BUT HOW WAS THE RACE TRUCK? “No I felt like we had a top-five truck. We didn’t have a winning truck tonight for sure, but I felt we had a top five truck. We just lost a lot of spots there on that last deal. The crew guys said they dropped a lug nut and we got behind on that and some of the guys beat us out on the fuel stop and I don’t think they took but a splash and there were some of the Toyotas saving fuel there in the end. They must have put just enough in it to make it.
“For some reason we were really good at the beginning……..I shouldn’t say really good but pretty good. And then on the last two runs we got really off for some reason. I don’t know if it was air pressure or what we did but it was definitely off at the end. I don’t know. Not a horrible day but not a good day.”
HOW ABOUT THE CHAMPIONSHIP? YOU LOST TO ONE OF THE BEST. “I’m over it. I want to win races. I mean congratulations to Ron and the whole deal. They were good the whole year and they were winning races and we got out fuel-mileaged and beat on that. I look forward to the new……I should say the old pit rules the way it should be done and I definitely think we are going to be a lot better next year.”
RON HORNADAY AND KEVIN HARVICK POST RACE AND POST CHAMPIONSHIP PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT – MORE TO FOLLOW:
CONGRATULATIONS ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP“Thank you. I couldn’t think of a better track and I love Phoenix. It looked pretty grim for a while. But its not over by far because we are racing Kyle Busch for the owner points and that is the true goal. That shows how good our team is and Kyle has been really racing strong and has six or seven wins this year. So we are going to do what we can to hold them off down there but we are going to go down there and have a little fun and race a little different.”
WAS YOUR GOAL TONIGHT TO RACE SMART AND TO NOT MAKE ANY MISTAKES?“You didn’t watch the race because we tried to race smart but we left the gas can out the back and that put us in the back and I was sweating it out because we got behind the 11 and I started pushing real bad and I thought my right front tire started going. I put about five turns of brake in and I started sliding and I learned something.
“On the third to the last restart it wouldn’t turn and started shoving the tires and I had to put more rear brake in it just then. Luckily that kind of happened in that run because it kept us in the top-five and Johnny Sauter was really coming strong so…….we came home in the top-five and that’s what we needed to do to keep Matt behind us. He’s a heck of a racer and I am glad they turned the program around and gave us a run for our money all year long and there are just so many people to think and you guys have been following it all year and see what it takes to go racing with Copart, Longhorn, VFW, Georgia Boots, and Turtle Wax. It really takes a lot and having all those sponsors to work together and do what they have done is just great.
“Mark Smith with the motor program and what he has done and with Chevrolet and everything they do including the wind tunnel and all their support and Pratt and Miller. It just takes a bunch of people and I am just fortunate enough that my wife and I are old enough that we are just at the race track and having fun.”
HOW SIGNIFICANT AND HOW BIG OF A DEAL IS THIS CHAMPIONSHIP TO YOU TO SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM SPRAGUE AND BE THE FIRST 4 TIME CHAMPION?“You said it right there. I got one up on Sprague and that’s all that counts. I said it out there, that Sprague needs to come back and try and get a fourth one and just keep me racing. Jack and I have been fighting for wins and championships back and forth and Jack had to quit and give me a little head start so we went back and forth and he had 23 then I had 24 then he had 25 so its just been a fun battle with Jack and I wish he was still out there because he is a heck of a little racer. I don’t know. Maybe I will have to build another trophy case. I only have five so maybe I will have to move one over and put two together so.
“Its been a long week because Lindy’s mom went through surgery and she came out of that real well and they had given her a thirty five percent chance of surviving it and she is doing real well and at home today. So it will be good to get home and see her tomorrow.”
YOU HAVE TALKED BEFORE ABOUT GUYS COMING AND SLEEPING ON YOUR COUCH. BUT HOW COOL IS IT TO THINK THAT YOU HAD JIMMIE JOHNSON, WHO MIGHT BE A FOUR TIME CHAMPION, YOU ARE NOW A FOUR TIME CHAMPION AND YOU GOT HARVICK IN THE MIX. YOU LOOK BACK ON THAT AND COULD YOU IMAGINE THAT GUYS WHO WERE SLEEPING ON YOUR COUCH WOULD HAVE AS MANY CHAMPIONSHIPS AND YOU WOULD HAVE AS MANY CHAMPIONSHIPS AND ALL THAT STUFF BACK THEN?
“My wife made me sleep on the couch just last week. (laughs). Its kind of cool and I think this is kind of the payback with what Kevin and Delana have done for me and like I said its not over. We have to win that owners point championship. They definitely deserve it because they have given me great trucks all year. And the truck that Kevin built tonight was a 2010 that we are going to run next year and we have had a lot of help from Chevrolet and because Kevin never quits. I went into the shop a couple of weeks ago and there were like fourteen trucks and then I came back and there were like five trucks. I said, ‘where did all the trucks go?’. He said, ‘Kevin sold them all and you are getting all brand new trucks again next year. And when we won five races in a row they were all brand new trucks and so my hats off to the boss man right there. He has what it takes to win them and oh, here is the boss lady…..I forgot. But its been fun and we are not done. As long as Kevin and Delana has me, we are going to win some more of them.”
RON - IT IS UNUSUAL TO WRAP UP A TITLE WITH ONE RACE TO GO, THAT HAS TO BE A NEW EXPERIENCE FOR YOU: “It took me 30 years to do it. If you look at the year, we had a pretty good points lead and then we ended up blowing a tire at Dover and Matt caught us. Then we had another bad race and ran out of fuel. Like I said, we’re not done racing. We have to go down and race Kyle Busch. Those owner’s points mean more to me than a trophy because it says the whole team worked hard and we beat everybody. So we are going to go out and do what we have got to do. Kyle is on a roll. He almost won three of them last weekend. We are going to go out there and get the owner’s championship…so we are going to keep racing.”
RON – TALK ABOUT HOW SPECIAL THIS TRACK IS TO YOU FROM YOUR SOUTHWEST TOUR AND WINSTON WEST DAYS: “Kevin was telling Carmichael (Ricky) that I was racing here when it was dirt, before they even started it. Oh, fresh asphalt. It is cool. I am not totally talking about the championship. It is cool for me to win it, but it isn’t over yet, it is not even close. Kevin and DeLana deserve a lot more because of the equipment, the people they put in places. It takes a lot. Without our sponsors that work together and the program they put together to make it happen, this is what it is all about.”
RON - IS THERE AN ADDED SENSE OF BEING SPECIAL IN THE VFW TRUCK WITH BEING SO CLOSE TO VETERAN’S DAY AND COMING ON THE HEELS OF THE TRAGEDY AT FT. HOOD? “I appreciate that. The last few have been VFW races it is hard to go out there and see all those soldiers and see the tragedy at Ft. Hood. A lot of support from VFW. I can’t say enough about them. I had the opportunity to go to Iraq and see what the men and women do first hand. TV, newspaper, they really don’t do it justice. I brought pictures home and tried to explain it to my wife. About the smells and everything else. My hat is off to all the men and women. It is pretty cool and it is special and thanks for bringing it up.”
RON - TALK ABOUT HOW UNIQUE IS THE RELATIONSHIP IS BETWEEN YOU AND KEVIN: “I’m mad that I didn’t get to go up there and race him for the win. We had to play it smart and do what we had to do to overcome a pit stop failure. Rick Ren made a great call to only put one can of fuel in to beat the No. 88 out of the pits. It worked out great. It is always fun to race Kevin because you know he is going to run 120 mile an hour faster than you. I remember the first time I ran his Nationwide car, he was in the second car and he turned me sideways to pass me. I was like “Doesn’t he know he owns this car? I couldn’t go run into the back of him just cause he did that. That was the first experience I had with Kevin, he doesn’t really car whose car it is he is going to move you out of the way to race it.”
KEVIN – SAME QUESTION: “For me, I came up through my career. I was thinking back to races at Mesa Marin, the nights the he and Rick Carelli and Mike Chase and all the guys that used to race in, it was open comp back then, then Southwest Tour. I was sitting in the grandstands. And now I have Ron and Rick and Ernie Cope and a couple of kids from the West Coast, and Andy Houston that came up through the Truck Series, so it is just a lot of us that raced together. It is about the race vehicle. These guys go out and race it and enjoy it”
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