Kyle warms up with Truck win.

He, like the rest of the Chase for the Championship contenders, may have been powerless to stop the Jeff Gordon/Jimmie Johnson freight train so far in this years Chase but outgoing Hendrick driver Kyle Busch was able to warm up for Sunday's Pep Boys 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway with a victorious return to the Craftsman Truck Series on Saturday.

Busch staved off a window net problem in the latter stages of Saturday's EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200 to defeat Ron Hornaday, Jr for his first Truck Series win this year.

Meanwhile, Hornaday's runner-up finish returned him to the standings lead by four points over Mike Skinner with three races remaining in the season. It was the fifth time in the last six races there has been a change in the standings lead.

The window net problem on Busch's Billy Ballew Motorsports truck developed around lap 100 in the 130-lap event.

"I don't know why the window net came loose," Busch said after collecting his fifth truck victory in 33 career races. "I tried pinning it back up and when I tried that, I lost the back of it so the whole thing was out. I was sitting there trying to hold the whole thing up with my left hand. I was trying to hold it up so nobody could really tell, but I wasn't doing a very good job of that because it flew out a couple of times.

"When that caution came out I said, 'Thank goodness.' I just dropped it. I was about done. I was on about my last couple of laps of being able to hold it up, really. It was pretty difficult to do. That caution saved our race. If we'd had to come down pit road under green, we would have parked it."

NASCAR ordered Busch to his pit on lap 107 to get the faulty window net repaired. Simultaneously, the fourth of five yellow flags waved due to an accident on the backstretch.

When the race restarted on lap 111, Busch rebounded quickly. With 13 laps remaining he was battling Johnny Benson for second. Then, on lap 119, the final caution period began, closing the field and providing Busch with one more shot at leader Hornaday and the second-place Benson.

With eight laps remaining, the race returned to green and Busch wasted little time as he immediately shot to the outside of Benson, taking over second, and then dispensed with leader Hornaday as the field returned to the front stretch.

Busch easily pulled away during the remaining laps, leaving Hornaday to finish second and Benson third. Rounding out the top five were Mark Martin and Skinner.

Next weekend, the truck series will continue its season ending shootout at Texas Motor Speedway.