HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) – Ron Hornaday Jr. won the 27th truck race of his career with the third-closest finish in series history, edging Bobby Labonte by about a foot at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday night.

Hornaday appeared to be pulling away in the closing laps of the World Financial 200, but pole-sitter Rick Crawford slammed into the wall on the next-to-last lap. After the debris was cleared, the green came out for a two-lap sprint to the finish.

Labonte got a good jump on the restart, getting past Bobby Hamilton for second and closing in on Hornaday. Hugging the outside wall on the final lap, Labonte briefly went to the lead on the backstretch.

Hornaday charged back to the front coming through turn three, sparks flying off his truck as he touched the apron of the track. Labonte made another run coming through the trioval, and the cars made slight contact as they approached the checkered flag.

Hornaday’s car began to slide sideways, but he somehow regained control and edged Labonte by eight-thousandths of a second.

“This is fun,” said Hornaday, who’s racing full-time on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the first time since 1999. “I’ve not seen the tape, but that was pretty cool.”

Hornaday, who claimed truck championships in 1996 and 98, won for the first time in the series since the closing race of the 2002 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

It was the closest truck finish ever on a superspeedway. The only tighter finishes came in 1995 – the series’ debut season – on short tracks in Colorado and Richmond.

Last year, the first truck race held in Atlanta featured a wild finish. Bobby Hamilton passed Mike Skinner on the final lap and held on when Skinner spun off turn four, sliding backward across the line just 0.33 seconds behind the winner.

This was one even closer.

“I’ve seen it the other way around where Skinner spun last year,” Hornaday said. “I made it across this time.”

Labonte, a Nextel Cup regular, was taking part in only the fourth truck race of his career. But he knows his way around the 1.54-mile trioval, where he has won six Cup races.

“I just lost some momentum and he had some momentum,” Labonte said. “It was awesome with 20 laps to go – outside, inside, three-wide, two-wide. I didn’t know what was going to happen with five or six trucks in there.”

Hamilton, in a Dodge, held on for third and retained the series points lead after three races. He was the only non-Chevrolet driver in the top five.

Dennis Setzer was fourth and David Starr fifth.

Crawford led 52 of the 135 laps, far more than any other driver, but the wreck knocked him back to 29th.

AP-ES-03-18-05 2339EST