LOUDON, N.H. – Ron Hornaday Jr.’s 33rd career NASCAR Craftsman Truck series victory was memorable.

Hornaday led 174 of the 200 laps and cruised to a 4.211-second win over Erik Darnell at the New Hampshire 200 Saturday afternoon.

“We had an awesome truck. This was a great win. I can’t say that I have ever had a truck that was as good as what I had today. We have to thank everybody who has anything to do with this team and this effort.” said Hornaday. “To win a race and be as dominant is unbelievable.”

Hornaday became the first two-time winner at NHIS in the truck series with a previous victory in 1996.

Qualifiying was rained out so Hornaday, leader in owner and driver points, started on the pole.

Sean Caisse of Pelham, N.H., who drives for the Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre and his Andy Santerre Motorsports team in the Busch East series, was supposed to make his debut in the Truck series but didn’t make the field when qualifying was rained out.

Kerry Tharp, director of communications for NASCAR, explained that under the guidelines pertaining to this type of situation, Caisse didn’t make the starting grid because he didn’t enter the event until after the Sept. 4 deadline.

Thirty-seven trucks were on the entry list and the limit is 36 on the starting grid in the Trucks series. The other 36 had entered before the deadline.

However, if there had been qualfying, Caisse could have made the starting grid based on his qualifying time.

Had Caisse entered before the deadline and qualifying was rained out, it would have come down to him and Donny Lia since neither one had entered a race this season. Itt would have been decided on the random draw for qualifying order and Caisse would have earned the spot because he was scheduled to go out 18th to qualify while Lia was 30th.

Lia started last (36th) but wound up finishing 20th in the race.

Hornaday’s truck was so dominant, he was able to let off the accelerator a tad.

“I was saving a little bit just in case we had a green-white checkered. I could pick up two or three-tenths a lap any time I wanted to. I was playing a little bit and when they caught me, I’d take off a little bit,” said Hornaday, who drives the Camping World Chevrolet for Kevin and DeLana Harvick.

Hornaday’s crew chief, Rick Ren, said, “I knew we had a really good truck but things still have to go your way. All we had to do was tune on it. I think we had to [only] change one spring after taking it off the hauler. We ran 74 laps yesterday [in practice] on one set of tires and we were still two-tenths of a second quicker than anybody else.”

The truck was so good, it made Ren nervous.

“I was setting up on the box thinking ‘Man, we’re way too good. Somebody’s going to blow a tire, somebody’s going to drop oil or two lappers [lapped trucks] are going to wreck right in front of us. It’s nerve-wracking when you have a dominant vehicle.”

Darnell started 11th in his Northern Tool-Equipment Ford and had a strong run but couldn’t challenge Hornaday.

“We were consistent. We started 11th and slowly picked them off. Hornaday had a really good truck. It was like the one we had in Kansas where it was like we could do no wrong,” said Darnell. “I wish there had been a yellow [flag] somewhere near the end so we could have gotten bunched up with him. It would have been interesting. Me and [Mike] Skinner were just about as fast as him so we would have been able to race him.”

However, Darnell added that Hornaday may have been “holding back once he got out front” which turned out to be the case.

Darnell admitted that based on “what we were doing on that last run, I don’t think we would have caught him.”

Darnell’s second-place finish was accomplished with a new crew chief, Matt Puccia, and a new crew.

Puccia had been the crew chief for the No. 50 truck driven by T.J. Bell on Saturday but owner Jack Roush flip-flopped crew chiefs and crews with the No. 99 driven by Darnell.

“Matt and the crew did a great job making adjustments,” said Darnell.

Skinner wound up third and rounding out the top 10 were Todd Bodine, Mike Bliss, Rick Crawford, Ted Musgrave, Johnny Benson, Jon Wood and Shane Sieg.