Sparta, KY (Sports Network) - Despite having to start from the rear of the field, Kyle Busch won a Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky for the first time on Thursday night.

Busch began the UNOH 225 from the back of the field after he missed the pre- race drivers' meeting. Sprint Cup Series practice for the inaugural race at Kentucky concluded just prior to the meeting. Busch also skipped the final truck practice here earlier in the day.

He quickly charged through the field and took the lead for the first time on lap 60.

Johnny Sauter, the pole sitter, passed Busch for the top spot with less than 50 laps remaining, but Sauter suffered a broken rear axle during his final scheduled pit stop, which took him out of contention to win.

After the last round of pit stops under green, Busch moved to the front again with 19 laps to go.

An accident involving Nelson Piquet Jr. and rookie Miguel Paludo in the final laps setup a green-white-checkered finish. After the final restart, Busch pulled ahead of the field, while Parker Kligerman, another rookie on the series this season, moved ahead of Jason White for second.

Busch held off Kligerman at the finish by 0.3 seconds for his fifth truck win of the season and the 29th of his career.

"It's been a long day," Busch said. "It was a good thing I skipped the morning [truck] practice. Otherwise, I would've had 20 more laps in me."

Busch's 29th win moved him into sole possession of second place on the series all-time race winners list. He had been in a tie with Mike Skinner and Jack Sprague with 28 victories each. Ron Hornaday Jr. holds the series record with 48 wins.

"We probably didn't have the fastest truck tonight, but we certainly gave it our all," Busch added.

Busch has now accumulated 98 total victories in all three of NASCAR's national touring series. He is competing in Friday's Nationwide Series race and Saturday's Sprint Cup event at Kentucky.

Kligerman also finished second in last month's truck race at Texas.

"This team has really worked hard the last few months," he said. "I put us into a little bit of a hole at the beginning of the year, in terms of crashing trucks, but I kind of got my head screwed on straight here the last few races."

Brendan Gaughan took the third spot, followed by Todd Bodine, who won last year's race here, and Jason White.

Elliott Sadler, rookie Joey Coulter, David Starr, James Buescher and Travis Kvapil completed the top-10.

Even though he wound up finishing 24th due to his pit-road mishap, Sauter still added to his points lead. He holds a 23-point lead over Cole Whitt, who finished 26th after he was involved in a crash with Hornaday during the mid- stages.

Hornaday and Whitt were battling for the fifth position just after a restart, but Hornaday made contact with Whitt, causing the both of them to spin and make contact with the outside wall.

"I felt like I gave [Hornaday] plenty of racing room," Whitt said. "I felt like coming off of [turn] two, he ran me up the track, and then down in three and four. He just got loose underneath me. It's something that happens with these trucks."

Hornaday, who finished 27th, admitted the accident was his fault.

"We were just loose in," he said. "I drove it in there and lost the nose. Then I got up there into [Whitt]."

Hornaday fell from third to sixth in the rankings (-37).