NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
O’REILLY 200
MEMPHIS MOTORSPORTS PARK
POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
June 28, 2008

Ron Hornaday Wins at Memphis; Retakes Lead in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Standings; Extends All-Time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race Win Record to 36 Races
Fifth Silverado Victory of Season puts Chevrolet Back on Top of Manufacturers’ Championship Point Standings

Memphis, TN – June 28, 2008 – Ron Hornaday had a great record at Memphis Motorsports Park (MMP) heading in to tonight’s O’Reilly 200, but he was determined to make it better and take home the coveted Elvis trophy the race winner receives in victory lane. After leading 139 of 204 laps in his No. 33 Camping World Silverado fielded by Kevin Harvick, Inc. (KHI) to claim his third win of the 2008 season, the three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) champion it is a two-time winner at the Tennessee track.

The victory is the 36th of Hornaday’s career, extending his lead as the all-time NCTS race winner. He retook the top-spot in the championship standings by 27 points over fellow Team Chevy Silverado driver Matt Crafton. In addition to his three victories, Hornaday has scored six top-five and eight top-10 finishes thus far in the season.

His victory was the fifth for Chevrolet this season and vaulted the Bowtie brand back to the top of the NCTS Manufacturers’ point standings with 12 of 25 races now in the record books.

Hornaday qualified third and took the lead for the first time on lap 44. He retook the point on lap 76 and never looked back as the race scheduled for 200 laps, finished under a green-white-checkered scenario, the fourth time this season for the NASCAR pickup truck drivers.

Crafton, No. 88 Menards Silverado, kept his quest for his first NCTS championship in high gear with a third place finish at Memphis. It is the second consecutive race Crafton has finished in the top three to extend his season’s record to one win, six top-five and seven top-10 finishes. Crafton started 16th in the 35-truck field.

Jack Sprague, No. 2 American Commercial Lines Silverado, finished sixth to give Team Chevy Silverado three drivers in the top-10. Sprague is eighth in the standings. Chevrolet driver Chad McCumbee, No. 8 Malcolmson Construction Silverado remains 10th in points after finishing 15th at MMP.

Round 13 for Team Chevy Silverado in NCTS competition is July 19, 2008 at Kentucky Speedway.

RON HORNADAY, NO. 33 CAMPING WORLD SILVERADO, RACE WINNER:
Ron, this is your first race win after turning fifty years old. "Well, first of all my thoughts and prayers are with Eric Darnell. I know he wanted to win this race really bad because his roommate was killed this week."

Ron were you worried on those last few laps that something was going to go wrong? "No, Rick Carelli is my spotter knows this place really well and actually I believe it was back in 1999 that he got hurt really bad here and has a lot of respect for this race track and I do too. Winning this thing is awesome because we've had it taken away from us in many different scenarios. Rick Carelli and Rick Ren didn't say anything to me during that red flag. They were just telling me about the oil on the track and where it was at and stuff like that and told me that the track looks pretty good so it should be good for us.

"I just sat there and thought okay we've got a flat tire, okay the engine's not going to start, or the blower is not going to work and I'm going to get sweat in my eyes and run into the fence. Those are the scenarios you think to yourself. But Rick Carelli, my spotter, and Rick Ren and all the guys in the pit crew never said a word so they gave me my ten minutes of quietness to think about how I am going to lose this race myself."

Looks like you are going to have a little battle here with Matt Crafton for the championship, at least at midseason. How old was Matt when you first ran across him out there in California and you were racing his dad? "All I remember is that Matt used to ride the dogs around. He had some big old Rottweilers or whatever those things were. He used to ride those dogs.

“But I tell you, Chevrolet has come a long ways with what they have been doing and they've done their homework a lot the last year to run with the other manufacturers and its paying off a lot this year. The way you see what Crafton is doing and what you see what Chevrolet and Silverado is doing for our team. It’s a testament of Jack (Sprague) running good and every Chevrolet out there is running real well this year. I am very proud of what everyone is doing and Crafton, he's bearing down, he's doing good and running awesome. You get that first win and you get a little hunger in your eyes and he's definitely been driving it, and definitely wants to win some more.

"That was probably the hardest race I have run this year so far. I wanted that trophy really bad and I know we've got one more year and that Elvis trophy is the coolest thing in the world. I wanted Texas bad but Memphis is cool. I've come close at Nashville and I need a guitar. I've got a couple from my fans but I've never gotten any from winning a race so I got the Elvis trophy.

"We were really good in practice yesterday and we did a qualifying run and we were terrible. So Rick Ren stayed up all night long just thinking about it and he made some very minor changes, but he must have done ten changes and it seemed to work for the best."

Back to those final restarts. More often than not, this race has been won with somebody using the bumper. I guess you were thinking about that in the end? "Yeah, I mean there's two ways to do it. If you don't pull away from them on the front straightaway and get into turn one clean you can go in there about five miles an hour faster cause they are going to try and run into the back of you. I know Eric (Darnell) wanted this race for his buddy, but I wouldn't have blamed Eric if he turned me sideways because he wanted that win. But I had a good feeling we were going to win this thing and I hated to be the one to take it from him but its racing and you have to race hard and it was a good race."

MATT CRAFTON, NO. 88 MENARDS SILVERADO, FINISHED THIRD: “Our truck was awesome. We knew it was good on the long run. We’ve got to start qualifying better. We used all our stuff up trying to get through. We definitely passed a lot of trucks. If we can learn to qualify better, we definitely can give Hornaday a run for the money. We beat our truck up getting to the front.”

About the green-white-checkered restart, prospects of passing Darnell: “My truck always took two laps to get going. It was just tight enough in the middle it would wash up. On improvement this year: We say we need a new truck or there is something new out there to make us better, we get it. Duke and Rhonda Thorson are spending to try things, sometimes they’re not always better, and we’re testing. They’re giving us everything we need.”

What are your thoughts heading into Kentucky? "I have ran horrible there the last three years, but we've learned a lot and we've been working on our coil-binding stuff but we've been really bad there the last couple years. But I am really looking forward to going there. It’s an awesome race track and it’s an awesome race track. It’s a flat mile-and-a-half race track. It’s not one of these high-banked mile-and-a-half tracks where you are glued to the white line. You can search there and can run the top or the bottom. I'm looking forward to going to Kentucky and keeping this momentum going"