Ron Hornaday Jr. survived a late-race altercation – and a post-race altercation – with Johnny Sauter to finish second and give Kevin Harvick Inc. a sweep of the first two spots. Brian Ickler, driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, took third.

Hornaday sent Sauter into a spin as they battled for position 27 laps from the finish, and Sauter marched with intensity to confront Hornaday on pit road after the race, shoving a couple of crewmen who attempted to intervene.

Sauter yelled at Hornaday for about a minute as NASCAR officials and crewmen watched.

Also upset with Hornaday was Mike Skinner, whose truck was damaged when he slammed into the sliding Sauter. Skinner blamed Hornaday for the crash.

“I hate to see that,” Hornaday said of Sauter’s slide. “Johnny’s all mad, but that’s what short track racing is all about. He came down on me and I got into him.”

  

Asked if he planned to talk to Sauter later, Hornaday said, “There’s no talking to Johnny.”

Sauter would not discuss the incident after the race.

Timothy Peters, who finished fourth, led 39 laps in the middle of the race but couldn’t hold off Harvick.

“I pushed him as hard as I could to make him run hard,” Harvick said. “His truck would fall off after 15 to 20 laps. He started to get loose, and I got underneath him.”

It was a typical hard-knuckles afternoon of racing at Martinsville, with numerous trucks spinning out and the caution flag flying 11 times for 66 laps.

Narain Karthikeyan, a driver from India who formerly raced in Formula One, had an impressive debut in his first NASCAR major-series race, finishing 13th on the lead lap.

Mike Hembree at Speed Tv contributed to this report

RESULTS: KROGER 250- MARTINSVILLE

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