Hornaday notches seventh straight top-10 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

heavy rain shower on Friday afternoon.  The field was set on 2002 NASCAR Owner points which put the No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet in the 16^th position.  Not only did qualifying get rained-out, but ‘happy hour” practice was delayed until darkness fell over the speedway.  That left the team scrambling for a setup, as track time was minimal and when they ran, it was in conditions completely different from when they would race.  Since two RCR cars were in the field, the crews of the Payday Chevy and the ACDelco Chevrolet huddled up to make sure both cars had similar setups.  Kevin Harvick, driving the Payday machine, sat down with Hornaday and realized they were felling the same thing in the car.  This allowed both teams to run the same basic setup.

The morning of the race the sun was out, but the forecast called for a 60% chance of rain.  As the start neared, clouds formed over the turn four area of the track, a sign of weather to come.  At the drop of the green flag, Hornaday made his patented three-wide move to the outside going into turn one and picked off Todd Bodine and others to move into ninth.  Coming back to the line to complete lap one, Steve Park spun down the frontstrech bringing out the first caution of the day.  The race restarted on lap four and once again Hornaday, “the master of the restart” drove to the high side of the field and went three-wide into turn one.  This time he passed four more cars into fifth.  Rick Viers, the crew chief of the ACDelco machine, keyed his radio and told Hornaday, “You’re the man Ron…I like what I see.”

During the early stages of the race, Hornaday worked on hitting his marks in turns one and two.  Richard Childress kept an eye on the car from atop his motorcoach and helped the No. 2 car by studying the fast way around.  “Easy in and you’ll get them off,” said Childress.  The ACDelco Chevy ran in the top-10 for the early stages of the race.  The car was a little loose getting into the corner, but the veteran Hornaday dialed in more rear brake bias, which helped the car on entry.  At the front of the pack, Harvick had pulled away to a large lead with Jeff Burton and Todd Bodine closing in.

The good racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was put under the yellow flag for rain on lap 62, but fortunately at the time, it was just a brief shower.  Hornaday made his way down pit lane with the rest of the field and took on four new tires and the crew made a small chassis adjustment.  He left pit road 17.75 seconds later in 10^th position.  On the next restart (lap 66), Hornaday went for the outside, but was squeezed up near the wall by Jaime McMurray, forcing Hornaday to drop back in line.  Over the next few laps, Hornaday was passed by several cars.  “It’s super tight, what did you guys do?” asked Hornaday to Viers.  “We only put a half around of wedge in Ron, let it come to you,” Viers calmly told his driver.  The car did start to come in after a long green flag run and Hornaday began to reel in the field.  But before he could use the long run to his advantage, Bobby Hamilton, Jr. spun the No. 49 of Chris Bingham bringing out the yellow flag.  While running behind the pace car on the backstretch, Burton’s car erupted in flames due to an oil leak and his day ended.  Hornaday saw the whole thing and radioed the crew, “Wow, he just caught on fire.  That was weird!”  The ACDelco Chevrolet came down pit road and the crew went to work.  They decided to take the wedge back out, as early track position seemed to be important, since cautions seemed to come out before any long runs could happen.  Hornaday would restart the race in 14^th.

On lap 120 the race would again go green, but Hornaday was not able to get positions at the start of the run like he had each restart before.  In fact he fell back to 16^th and it looked like rain was coming.  “I don’t know what it is but this car just won’t get going for about 10 laps,” Hornaday said.  The race for lead had picked up as all of the spotters radioed from the roof that it was raining off of turn four and coming quickly.  Michael Waltrip and Bodine ran side-by-side for what seemed like forever.  Rain hit the track hard on lap 140, as Bodine nipped Waltrip at the line.  Hornaday crossed in 15^th.  To most it looked like the end of the day.

But almost as fast as it came, the full storm passed by the track and the sun came back out just 20 minutes later.  Within an hour of the original rain, the track had been dried and racing began again.  During the rain delay, Hornaday, Viers, and Childress decided to stay out once the race started, instead of pitting which the felt most of the field would do.  They knew how important track position had been for Hornaday.  They were correct.  The entire field came down pit road and Hornaday took over the lead under yellow and picked up five valuable points for leading the race.

Lap 151 marked the restart of the race, leaving only 49 laps to go.  Hornaday held off Joe Nemechek, Bodine and Waltrip for only three laps and without fresh tires fell back to sixth.  But considering they would have been back around 16^th, it was a good call.  While racing Nemechek for the lead on lap 169, Bodine's’car broke loose and spun through the infield grass.  Hornaday saw the smoke a checked up, but the yellow never came out and Hornaday was passed by both David Green and Jason Keller.  Without tires Hornaday was sliding back in the field.  But ten laps later, the ACDelco driver caught the break he needed.

Johnny Sauter’s car spun on the front stretch on lap 179 and the yellow flew for the seventh time.  Hornaday was the only driver that still had new tires left in the pits, so the ACDelco Chevy came down pit road and took four fresh Goodyear Eagles.  The crew raised the tire pressures up three pounds all around to help him for the short run to the finish.  “Ron, you’re 19^th.  You have to pass at least 10 cars in 20 laps.  We want that top-10 buddy, so get all you can get,” said Viers.

At the drop of the green with just 17 laps to go, Hornaday wasted no time in making his charge to the front.  Each lap was another position in the book.  And the book read something like this:

Lap 185- passed six cars- 13^th Lap 187- passed another- 12^th Lap 188- passed the No. 48- 11^th Lap 192- passed the No. 23- 10^th Lap 194- passed the No. 39- 9^th

Hornaday was coming on the fresh tires and it looked like he might catch the four car battle for fifth, but ran out of laps.  The ACDelco car had charged from 19^th to 9^th in just 17 laps and in doing so Hornaday notched his first top-10 of the season and extended his Las Vegas Motor Speedway streak of never finishing out of the top-10 to seven straight years.  (note: He is the only driver in any NASCAR series with at least five starts at LVMS that can make that claim.)

The race up-front never materialized as Nemechek held off Harvick by five car lengths.  Mike Bliss, Steve Park and Jason Keller rounded out the top-five.  Harvick took over the points lead and Hornaday moved into the seventh position.

Next up for Ron Hornaday and Team ACDelco…Darlington Raceway.  Ron Hornaday and the No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet race at to the “track too tough to tame” on March 15, 2003.  Hornaday’s best finish at Darlington was eighth in 2000.  Last year, he finished 15^th substituting for Ricky Hendrick.