Hornaday Puts Up Tough Fight, Brings Home Fifth-Place Finish

FONTANA, Calif. (February 25, 2008) – Ron Hornaday was able to drive the No. 33 Camping World/VFW Chevrolet Silverado to a fifth-place finish in front of his home-state crowd in the San Bernardino County 200 at the Auto Club Speedway of Southern California in Fontana. The top-five finish by Hornaday gave him a big boost in the NASCAR Truck Series driver’s point standings; from 24th to ninth.

On Thursday, the Truck Series teams opened up the race weekend with two scheduled practice sessions. In the first practice session, Hornaday was

fifth fastest with a lap time of 41.637 seconds (172.923 mph). During the short break before the second practice began, the No. 33 Camping World/VFW Chevrolet Silverado crew made some minor adjustments to the truck. Hornaday went out for the second practice session and was third fastest with a fast lap of

41.405 seconds (173.892 mph).

Rain showers moved into the area through the night on Thursday and early Friday morning, which caused qualifying to be canceled on Friday afternoon. By NASCAR’s rules, the starting field for Saturday’s race would be set by using last season’s point standings. Hornaday, being the 2007 NASCAR Truck Series champion and point leader, would start Saturday’s race from the pole position.

Fortunately, Saturday morning brought sunshine to the fans and race teams as the San Bernardino County 200 was able to begin as scheduled. The 35-truck field lined up to take the green flag for the first of 100 laps with Hornaday leading the way for the first 15 laps.

The caution flag came out on lap 13 after NASCAR officials had spotted debris at the bottom of the track on the backstretch. Hornaday came down pit road and got four tires and fuel. He restarted the race on lap 17 in the 13th position and quickly began working his way back up the leader board by picking up three spots to the 10th position.

By lap 28, Hornaday had climbed back up into the top five and was running in the fourth position before taking the third spot away from Terry Cook on the next lap. Cook battled back and Hornaday had to settle into the fifth position, where he continued to run until the third and final caution came out on lap 45 for debris on the race track. Crew chief Rick Ren called Hornaday down pit road for another stop to get four tires and fuel. A good stop by the crew made it possible for Hornaday to gain one position coming off pit road and he restarted on lap 48 in the fourth position.

Once again, Hornaday got a good restart and began gaining ground on the leaders; taking away the third spot on lap 50. He continued to run in the third position for the next 25 laps and was running faster lap times than the race leader, Kyle Busch, and the second-place truck of Todd Bodine.

On lap 81, Hornaday followed the two leaders down pit road for what would be the last scheduled pit stop of the day. An unfortunate mishap on the right-front tire caused Hornaday to lose some positions coming off pit road. Hornaday overcame the pit stop and rallied from midway in the field in the last 15 laps before taking the checkered flag in the fifth position. It was the first top-five finish of the season for Hornaday and Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) in the 2008 Truck Series season.

“The truck was awesome, it handled good. We got a top-five, which is great,” Hornaday said. “I just want to thank Camping World, Chevrolet and everybody that is part of this team. It’s a lot of fun to drive this thing.”