Hornaday Sets Record Win At Craftsman Truck Series

Topics:  Quaker Steak and Lube 200, Ron Hornaday

Anthony Fontanelle
May 24, 2007

The recently concluded Quaker Steak and Lube 200 marked the first race for veteran NASCAR driver Ron Hornaday Jr. with Camping World as his sponsor. For the new sponsor, Hornaday pulled out a thrilling performance which landed him in the first place after the race composed of 136 laps.

The driver started the race as the seventh car on the grid but for the most part of the race, he led the pack. Throughout the 136 laps of the race, Hornaday led 98 of them before finishing with a flourish to earn him his 30th win at the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series. By that win, Hornaday set the series record for the most wins. The win also ended his 17-race winless streak which dates back after winning a race at the Kentucky Speedway on July 8 of last year.

But before the race started, Hornaday looks to be just coping with the competition as he clocked in a 30.554 lap time during the pre-race practice session. His time for the first practice session was the sixth among all the competitors. On the qualifying round, Hornaday posted a lap time of 30.281 which is enough to put him on the seventh spot at the start of the race. The race was held at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in North Carolina. The veteran diver raced his No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet during the race. While Chevrolet teams have been dominating the Nextel Cup Series, the win by Hornaday became only the first win for Chevrolet since the race in Texas last year.

During the race, Hornaday only needed nine laps to get to second place. After gaining ground and moving up to second, a caution flag was introduced. This means that Hornaday was not able to make his move to overtake the leader of the race. After the restart though, Hornaday once again showed his driving skills and capabilities by gaining ground. And come lap number 18, he was already in the second place again behind then race leader Travis Kvapil. It took Hornaday a lap more to overtake Kvapil and lead the race for the first time. After gaining the top spot, Hornaday increased the distance between him and the rest of the field.

On lap number 35, he was already leading some trucks by laps. On lap 37 though, another caution flag was thrown and Hornaday went into the pit lane and had a change of tires, and topped up on fuel. During the restart, he was in fourth place and by lap 46, he was again on second. On lap number 88, another caution flag was introduced again and Hornaday once again took advantage of the situation to change the four tires on his truck. For the restart, Hornaday was on second spot finding himself behind AJ Allmendinger on lap 91. Seven laps later, Hornaday successfully gained the top spot. From that time on, Hornaday did not relinquish his lead and went on to win his 30th series victory.

After the race, Hornaday has this to say: “We showed up for testing and basically threw everything out the window. Once we got three wide on the track, and it stuck when I was wide open, I knew this was going to be a good truck. I guess it goes back to the luck. Camping World’s colors are blue and yellow, and I won a lot of races in those colors.”

The Craftsman Trucks Series is a racing series sanctioned by NASCAR and is one of its three national divisions. The other two are the Busch Series and the Nextel Cup. In the Craftsman Truck Series, instead of stock cars, modified pickup trucks are raced. These trucks are not like the passenger pickups such as a Chevrolet pickup with a Chevrolet pickup taillight cover and other components.

Source:  Amazines.com