BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch pulled away from Matt Crafton in the closing laps to easily win the O'Reilly 200 truck series race Wednesday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Busch passed Jason White for the lead on lap 124 and then steadily pulled away from Crafton after the race's final caution period on lap 175.
• Results | Standings | Pistone: Quit whining, Kyle
Driving the No. 51 Toyota for Billy Ballew, it was Busch's second successive victory at the .533-mile short track and his third victory of the season. He has 12 victories overall in the three NASCAR national touring series this season.
"It's a fun place to race," Busch said. "For some reason, I've really taken to this track. We knew we had a fast truck. It was great to be able to capitalize tonight."
Busch wasn't confident he had the truck to win during practice leading up to the race. He credited being able to go to the high groove as a reason for his charge from sixth to the lead over the first 32 laps.
"We just came forward the first of the race by working the top," he said. "We were the first ones to go up there and take advantage of it."
Ron Hornaday Jr. finished third to end his series-record winning streak at five. His five victories in a row coming into the race were the most in one of NASCAR's three national series since Bobby Allison and Richard Petty each won five consecutive Sprint Cup races in 1971.
"Bristol is the toughest one," said Hornaday, the defending series champion. "I was pretty conservative. We finished in the top five, which is what we needed for the points."
The 51-year-old Hornaday increased his lead to 211 points over Crafton in the series standings. His winning streak started on June 20 at Milwaukee with the last victory coming on August 1 at Nashville.
"I'm sort of glad it's over so I can quit talking about it and go racing again," Hornaday said. "It's been a great ride. It's been a lot of fun and we hope to start a new one. We're not done yet."
Ryan Newman, who is running four NASCAR-sanctioned events at BMS this week, started on the pole with a speed of 122.217 mph. The 2008 Daytona 500 winner finished fourth, only hours after finishing 37th in a race for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series.
Busch led two times for 82 laps to score his 12th career Truck Series victory. White, who finished 14th after a late pit stop, led for 86 laps.
