CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

• Harvick crushes field to win Gateway truck race

  Madison, IL (Sports Network) - Neither a stiff neck nor scorching heat could stop Kevin Harvick from winning Saturday's 200-mile Camping World Truck Series race with a dominating performance at Gateway International Raceway.

  The CampingWorld.com 200 at Gateway was scheduled for Friday night, but a lengthy power outage around the 1.25-mile track forced postponement until the following day.

  Harvick, who was complaining of a stiff neck before the start of the race, started on the pole and led 143 of 160 laps. He held a sizeable lead before the fifth and final caution came with 36 laps remaining.

  When the race resumed, Harvick quickly pulled away from the field and then easily beat his fellow Sprint Cup series competitor Brad Keselowski by 5.2 seconds for his third victory of the season and the ninth of his truck career.

  "Physically, I feel okay," Harvick said. "I'm just so nervous about moving somewhere I shouldn't and catching my neck. It felt a lot better the hotter it got in [the truck], so that was a good thing." Harvick and Keselowski are among several drivers who ran in the truck race and are scheduled to compete in tonight's 250-mile Nationwide Series event here.

  Temperatures during the truck race soared to around 95 degrees, with the heat index well over 100 degrees.

  "I feel good, but I'm just a little hot and sweaty," second-place finisher Keselowski said. "I'll go back to the bus, take a nice shower and get ready for the Nationwide race tonight. I think we have even a better car over there than we had a truck over here. This truck was pretty good." Johnny Sauter finished third, while Todd Bodine, the series points leader, took the fourth spot. Matt Crafton completed the top-five.

  Timothy Peters, rookie Austin Dillon, who won last week at Iowa, Aric Almirola, Brian Ickler and Mike Skinner, last year's race winner at Gateway, finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

  Bodine padded his lead to 101 points over Almirola.

  Ron Hornaday Jr. finished a disappointing 26th. Hornaday was running in the second spot in the early going, but suffered a mechanical problem and eventually fell 10 laps down. The four-time defending series champion has yet to win a race this season after posting six victories, including a record five races in a row, during his 2009 title season.

  On lap 80, Ricky Carmichael and Jeffrey Earnhardt were involved in a hard crash.

  Mike Skinner bumped Carmichael and turned him around into the wall. As his truck then slid down the track, Earnhardt could not avoid the incident, as slammed into the rear of Carmichael's truck.

  Both drivers were not injured during the incident.

  07/17 16:58:33 ET