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KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Rick Ren figured he needed five more seconds of fuel or 11 caution laps. Without it, he calculated Ron Hornaday Jr. would run out of gas with about a half-lap left.
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Then came an accident. Three caution laps down. A spin out, three more caution laps. By the time Dennis Setzer slammed into the wall on Turn 4, Ren figured he had it made.
Ren's fuel gamble with 59 laps paid off thanks to five of the record 12 cautions at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, helping Hornaday win the wreck-filled O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 Craftsman Truck race.
"Let's say I was hoping for some cautions down the stretch," Ren said. "We were shocked."
Hornaday had the fastest car all day, starting at the pole and leading 136 of the 167 laps around the 1.5-mile oval. But when Andy Lally slammed into the wall on lap 108, Ren quickly calculated fuel mileage and took a gamble by sending Hornaday out with four new tires, but no gas.
Telling Hornaday to conserve fuel -- something he rarely does -- and hoping for a few more cautions, Ren looked like a genius when Hornaday held off teammate Jack Sprague by 0.149 seconds.
"He sounded like my wife when I'm on the road: save fuel, save fuel, with gas prices what they are, save fuel," said Hornaday, who became the eighth different winner in eight truck races at Kansas Speedway. "So I did."
Kyle Busch, the series points leader headed into Kansas, didn't race because of conflicts with Sprint Cup and Nationwide events at Talladega this weekend. He was replaced in the No. 51 Miccosukee Resorts Toyota Tundra by truck veteran Shane Sieg, who finished 16th despite an early accident.
Hornaday, the defending series champion, took advantage of Busch's absence, extending his series record with his 34th career truck win. He's 61 points ahead of Rick Crawford in the season points standings, doing it all with a completely new truck.
"Rick came back from vacation on Wednesday and said the truck's pretty good we're going to run the new truck," Hornaday said. "I said 'dude, I haven't even sat in the truck. What's it look like?' He said don't worry about it. I got here had to adjust the seat belt and the mirror, and that was it."
Kansas Speedway is normally a smooth track, with long green-flag runs and few cautions. This time, it was a wreck waiting to happen, with eight cars in the field of 36 getting knocked out. That includes Jeff Bodine, who was in second when he clipped the back of Bobby East and was knocked from the race with 10 laps left.
"It wasn't slippery, I don't know what the reasons for the cautions because this track usually shows green-flag stops and few cautions," said Sprague, who twice led for a total of eight laps.
Colin Braun finished a career-best third, Johnny Benson was fourth and Mike Skinner finished fifth. Brendan Gaughan was seventh despite an early accident and Scott Speed, winner of Friday's ARCA RE/MAX race, overcame a one-lap penalty -- for passing on a caution -- to finish eighth.
