Austin Dillon ended Kevin Harvick's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winning streak with a gutsy two-tire call on the final pit stop in Friday night's Fast Five 225 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Harvick, who had won the last three races he entered (the last three before the previous round in Atlanta, which KHI driver Ron Hornaday won), had the measure of the field before losing out to Dillon.
Dillon's win was his second of 2011 and fourth career, and moves him within three points of James Buescher for the lead in the point standings.
"This is the biggest win of my career, I think," Dillon, 21, said in Victory Lane. "I ran up there, racing with Kyle and Harvick. Harvick was great all night, but [crew chief Danny] Stockman made the call at the end to put us out on two tires.
"He knows when I get out front it's like smelling blood for a shark. When we got out there, we could just take off. The team – they kept gaining spots every time we came on pit road. I love coming on pit road when they're like that. It's awesome."
Harvick took four as a vibration took him out of contention.
"So when it got to the point of shaking bad enough to where I knew something was changing, I just came in and changed four tires,” he said. “I knew at that point, they [Dillon and Busch] were going to do the opposite, but we had to change four."
Nelson Piquet Jr. came home third, ahead of Parker Kligerman and Kyle Busch.
The series resumes next Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.