On Friday, Hornaday took to the track and was 18^th fastest in the first practice.  The ACDelco team had worked primarily on race setup as they felt like they had a pretty good qualifying setup.  It was good, as Hornaday qualified third fastest at 181.479 mph.  Hornaday’s Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick took the pole position at over 183-mph.  The success of both RCR cars continued into “happy hour”, as Hornaday was sixth fastest and Harvick still topped the chart.

After cloudy and cool conditions at the track on Friday, the sun shined bright at California Speedway on race day.  At the drop of the green flag, Hornaday pushed Harvick into turn one allowing him to slide into second place in front of Michael Waltrip.  On lap three the caution flag came out for the first time for a crash in turn four involving Regan Smith and Lance Norick.  It would take six laps to clean up the area and go back to green flag racing.

Once the race went back green, Hornaday immediately started to fall back.  He was passed by Waltrip, Stacy Compton, and Matt Kenseth on consecutive laps.  “It loose everywhere,” said Hornaday on the radio.  “I can’t get back in the gas without it turning sideways.”  By lap 17, Hornaday had drifted back to ninth position, but he had figured out the problem.  “It’s aero loose in traffic,” he told the crew.  “When I’m by myself the car is just a tick tight off, but once I get in traffic it does wicked things.”  Hornaday settled into 11^th position but was looking for a caution to be able to pit the car and try to fix the problem.

On lap 40, he got his wish.  Randy LaJoie lost an oil line and the yellow flag waved for the second time.  Hornaday brought the ACDelco Chevy down pit road and the crew went to work.  They made a four-tire change and Hornaday returned to the track.  Unfortunately, the left rear tire got away from the crew and Hornaday was forced to serve a stop and go penalty.  Instead of restarting ninth, he had to restart 21^st.

This put a little fire under Hornaday and when the race went back to green he wasted no time in charging to the front.  In just two laps he went from 21^st to 14^th with some daring three-wide moves.  The car was much better and Hornaday was on the move.  On lap 58, the yellow flag flew once again for debris in turn four.  While some of the leaders elected to make pit stops, Hornaday stayed out and he moved up to 10^th.

What the ACDelco Chevy really needed was a long green flag run.  And that is just what they got in the middle stages of the race.  By lap 68, Hornaday was the fourth fastest car on track and was reeling in the leaders.  As some of the leaders were forced to pit early starting at lap 100, Hornaday just kept charging to the front.  When the caution flag waved on lap 116 for a crash involving Stanton Barrett, Hornaday was in fifth position.  The ACDelco machine made its finally stop on lap 117 and it was their best of the day.  Hornaday beat all of the cars that had made stops off pit road.  He was now fourth.

The race went back to green and Hornaday immediately jumped into third place.  But he only held that spot for three laps, as it was apparent his car would not be the one to race for the win.  However, it was good enough to comfortable run fourth and it looked like Hornaday would score his second top-five of the season.  The longer the race stayed green the more Hornaday pulled away from Jason Keller in fifth.  But on lap 139, Tony Raines hit the wall and the final yellow of the day waved over California Speedway.  It was a catch-22 for the ACDelco team.  They were now in a position to possibly win the race or finish in the top-three.  Hornaday’s known on the circuit for being the master of the restart.  But they also looked like a lock for a top-five and as everyone knows, bad things can happen on a ten-laps to go restart.

Rick Viers, the crew chief for the ACDelco Chevrolet, told Hornaday to be aware of the cars behind him on the restart.  On the restart with seven laps to go, Hornaday tried to make his famous move to the outside of Shane Hmiel, but Hmiel blocked him nearly causing a wreck.  Hornaday tapped the brakes and dove to the inside to pass Hmiel.  But Keller had also dropped to the inside of Hornaday and suddenly the No. 2 ACDelco car was in the middle of a three wide pack going into turn one.  Keller pinched Hornaday up the track and with nowhere to go, Hornaday chose to back off rather than crash.  By backing off, Hornaday lost some momentum and several other cars got by.  When the checkered flag waved, Hornaday had finished 10^th.  It was a respectable finish, but it also left the team thinking “what if.”

The battle for the win turned out to be not quite as dramatic.  Kenseth pulled away from Waltrip in the final laps and took the victory.  Waltrip was second and Harvick third.  Despite finishing 10^th, Hornaday remained second in points behind Todd Bodine, just 99 points out of first.

The next race for the ACDelco Chevrolet and driver Ron Hornaday is next Friday night, May 2nd at Richmond International Raceway.