The weekend started just as well as it

ended.  On Friday afternoon, the ACDelco team and PayDay team were treated to a tour of the Hershey chocolate plant in Hershey, PA.  Hornaday and Johnny Sauter signed autographs for the employees and received samples of all the great Hershey Foods products.  After the tour, the team spent a few hours in Hershey Park enjoying the roller coasters and rides.

The fun continued at Nazareth Speedway.  The ACDelco transporter unloaded chassis no. 32, which was the same “drop-snout” car Hornaday had run well with at Gateway International Raceway last weekend.  From its first laps on the track, the ACDelco Chevrolet was one of the fastest cars.  The car had been totally re-worked at the RCR Busch shop earlier in the week.  The team changed the pick up points on the car and also the spindles.  The changes worked to perfection.  The goal for the team was to capture the pole and the Martin guitar that went with it.  Qualifying was playing right into the hands of the ACDelco team.  Many of the fast cars had not backed up their practice times and the pole was wide open.  But the No. 2 car was just a little too tight on its run and Hornaday missed the pole, but qualified third.  Randy LaJoie won the pole.

Happy hour proved to be just that for the ACDelco Chevrolet.  Hornaday immediately topped the chart during the first half of the final practice.  The crew tried several combinations of springs in the front of the car in an effort to make the car even faster for race day.  In fact, Hornaday held the fastest time in happy hour until the last 10 minutes when Kevin Grubb put on fresh tires and beat the time by a slim .007 of a second.  It was apparent to everyone that the “blue deuce” was the car to beat.

When the green flag waved to start the race, Hornaday wasted no time charging to the front.  He passed the No. 59 of Stacy Compton on the first lap and proceeded to catch and pass leader Randy LaJoie on lap 14 in turn one.  Once in the lead, Hornaday pulled away from the field.  Only LaJoie could hang with the No. 2 ACDelco Chevy and the twosome mounted a three-second lead over the rest of the pack.

On lap 58 the caution flag flew for the first time when Ashton Lewis, Jr. lost an engine in turn two.  Hornaday radioed to the crew that the car was just a little loose.  Most of the field came down pit road and the ACDelco team went to work.  They changed four tires and put a round of wedge into the car and Hornaday was down and away in 17.0-seconds.  He would restart the race in third position.

Once again, Hornaday wasted little time in dispensing of Kasey Kahne and LaJoie.  In just three laps, Hornaday not only took the lead back, but also raced away to a 1.3-second lead.  The car was on rails and Hornaday was dominating.  Lap 89 saw the yellow wave again for a crash involving Bill Hoff.  None of the lead cars pitted and Hornaday remained in the lead.  He would lead for the next 23 laps before a crash in turn two would bring the field down for the final pit stop.  Hornaday told the crew that the car was tightening up, so they decided to take a half turn of wedge back out of the car.  The stop was a fast one and Hornaday beat everyone who had pitted off pit road.  Three cars did not stop, so the ACDelco Chevy restarted the race fourth.

The only drama of the day happened during the next section of the race.  Hornaday restarted further back in traffic than he had been all day and the car didn’t like being there.  “The car is twice as tight,” Hornaday told the crew.  “This car could plow a 30 acre field.”  Despite a field plow, Hornaday began to take charge.  On lap 136 he had raced his way to second position and set his sights on the leader David Stremme.  Stremme had a huge lead out in clean air, but Hornaday was running him down.  On lap 140, LaJoie turned Grubb off of turn two bringing out the yellow flag.  On the lap 144 restart, Hornaday gave Stremme a tap in the bumper and let the rookie driver know he was getting down to business.  The following lap, Hornaday took the lead and never looked back. 

While Hornaday counted down the laps, Brian Vickers in the No. 5 car tried to mount a late challenge. But Hornaday was too strong and took the checkered flag.  It was Hornaday’s first win of 2003 and his third career NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) victory.  With the win and the bonus points for leading the most laps, Hornaday vaulted from sixth to third in the NBS points standing and is now just 83 points out of first place.

The next race for the No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet is Saturday May 24 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC.  Hornaday is the defending pole winner for that event.