Broken transmission costs Hornaday a top-five finish at Gateway

The weekend had its ups and downs from the

beginning.  The weather in the St. Louis area was the first concern to everyone.  Heavy rain and severe thunderstorms worked through the area on Wednesday and Thursday.  This caused the Gateway track to seep water in the corners and delayed practice and happy hour on Friday.  The track had dried out for qualifying and Hornaday took advantage of a late draw and excellent conditions.  The ACDelco Chevy used a great second lap of 34.145 seconds to qualify second overall.  It was a huge jump from the 34.650 that Hornaday ran in practice.  Ashton Lewis, Jr. nipped Hornaday for the pole with a time of 34.116.

On Saturday, the weather was again the story.  The NASCAR Busch Series garage area opened to the sound of Tornado warning sirens.  Everyone in the garage was forced to the tunnel under turn four to wait out the storm and the tornado that touched down just five miles from the track in Granite City, Ill.  Luckily, no one was injured and nothing was damaged in the storm that hit the track.  After a few brief hours of sunshine, another storm dumped rain on the track at Noon.  That rain would delay the start of the race by 30 minutes.

Once again the sun came out and the Charter Pipeline 250 was under way.  Hornaday used his patented restart to gain the lead going into turn one, but left the inside lane open for Lewis off turn two.  Trapped on the outside, Hornaday raced hard to find an opening on the inside.  On lap six, he was able to get to the bottom and settle into a groove in sixth position.

Lap 10 saw the caution lights flash for the first time in the race when Kerry Earnhardt spun his Chevrolet in turn two.  Hornaday radioed the ACDelco crew that he was just a little loose off the corner.  The restart on lap 14 saw the most dramatic move of the year by Hornaday.  He made an outside pass on Kasey Kahne and Mike Bliss going into turn one and then jerked the car to the inside off turn two and passed Jason Keller for third.  The ACDelco crew jumped on the wall with appreciation.

On lap 19, the yellow flag again waved as Kevin Grubb got into the back of Hornaday’s RCR teammate Johnny Sauter.  Sauter’s PayDay Chevy spun in turn two, but did not make any contact with the wall.  Hornaday told the crew that he was still loose off the corner, but that the car also was “air tight” when he closed on the back of another car getting into the corner.   He also told the crew that the transmission was real rough and seemed to have a vibration.  It was a sign of things to come.

Hornaday ran in the top-five during the entire first half of the race.  Despite a continued loose condition off the corners, the ACDelco Chevrolet held its own.  On lap 52, Hornaday was running fourth and holding off a challenge by Scott Riggs.  For several laps, Riggs attempted to get by Hornaday, but the ACDelco machine was just too powerful.  Finally, on lap 62, Riggs got by dropping Hornaday to fifth.  It was the last time during the event that Hornaday would have a meaningful battle.

On lap 72, the “blue deuce” made its way down pit road for service.  The ACDelco crew went to work on the No. 2 Chevrolet.  They changed all four tires and put a round of wedge into the car to help the loose off condition.  Hornaday raced off pit road and back to action in fifth position.  Hornaday’s teammate Sauter stayed out during the green flag run, but eventually made his stop on lap 101, handing the lead to Bliss.

The yellow flag flew over the track on lap 107 for a multiple car accident in turn four involving Randy LaJoie, Ashton Lewis, Coy Gibbs, and Chad Blount.    Hornaday used the caution to come down pit road with all of the leaders for what they hoped might be the final stop of the day.  For the ACDelco team, it was a stop that was not followed by a go.  After changing four more tires and making another adjustment to the chassis, Hornaday grabbed first gear and nothing happened.  He tried second gear, then third.  But the only gear left in the transmission was fourth.  The ACDelco Chevy chugged back on the track, but again the car jumped out of gear.  Hornaday asked for a bungee cord to keep the shifter in gear and after another stop, the bungee was tied and the car left pit road in fourth gear.  When the field got one to go, the car again jumped out of gear and Hornaday could not get it back in.  The crew tried to knock the car into gear, but could not and the ACDelco car headed behind the wall and into the garage.  They changed the transmission and Hornaday returned to action on lap 146, 29 laps down.  He was 32^nd.

The name of the game for the ACDelco car was just to survive and move on.  What promised to be a great day, ended in a 28^th place finish.  The race for the win was even more bizarre.  Bliss held a four-second lead over Riggs, but ran out of gas on the final lap, giving Riggs his first win of the season.  Hornaday, a close friend of Bliss, was shocked.  “Don’t tell me he just ran out of gas,” he asked the crew.  “Oh man!”

The 28^th place finish dropped Hornaday to sixth in points.  Despite losing four spots in two weeks, Hornaday is still just 108 points out of first after 11 of 24 races.