Over the last three races, Hornaday has been in the hunt for the win, only to see the car fade

in the late part of the race.  Last week at Pike’s Peak International Raceway, Hornaday led the most laps of anyone, but a tight car on the final run, left the ACDelco team with an seventh-place finish.  This week, Hornaday was the leader of the race during the final stages and once again a tight condition dropped the ACDelco Monte Carlo out of the top-five when the checkered flag waved.

The ACDelco Chevy was pretty good right off the transporter.  The No. 2 Monte Carlo was 12^th fastest during practice and crew chief Rick Viers and the team felt like they had a car that would be strong on long green flag runs.  Hornaday picked up even more speed in qualifying.  Unfortunately, so did the rest of the field.  Hornaday qualified 16^th.  It was the same starting spot he had in 2000, when he won the race at IRP.  Shane Hmiel won the Bud Pole.

The “Master of the Restart” wasted little time in picking off positions at the drop of the green flag.  By lap nine, the ACDelco Chevrolet had moved into 10^th position using the bottom groove of the track.  Despite running in heavy traffic, Hornaday was one of the fastest cars on the track.

On lap 19, the yellow flag waved for the first time as Joey Clanton got into the back of Martin Truex, Jr. in turn three.  Both cars spun up the track with Clanton getting the worst of the crash.  Stacy Compton spun his car to avoid the wreck and made light contact with the nose of Clanton.  Hornaday was eighth.

Hornaday continued his march to the front.  On lap 81, Hornaday got by Kyle Busch to take over the fifth position.  Up front, Hmiel and Brian Vickers battled for the lead and pulled away from the rest of the top-five.  Just 29 laps later, the caution waved.  The yellow gave the No. 2 ACDelco Monte Carlo the chance to get four fresh Goodyear tires.  It was a great stop for the “blue deuce”.  The crew had one of their best stops of the year and Hornaday beat everyone off pit road and took over the lead of the race.

On the restart, Hornaday tried to pull away, but the cars of Vickers and Hmiel were too strong.  Vickers got by Hornaday on lap 116 and Hmiel followed through on lap 117.  Hornaday settled into third position.  Hornaday had not been the fastest on a short run, but was the class of the field over a long run.

On lap 127, Busch and Ashton Lewis, Jr. got together and hit the wall in turn one.  During the yellow, Hornaday told the crew that the car was a tick tight, but that he thought it would be good on a long run.  But the car never freed up and Hornaday fell back into the field.  On lap 160, he dropped out of the top-five when both Jason Keller and Stacy Compton got by on the inside.  Hornaday fought the car trying to get it to rotate in the center.  The low groove that helped him pass so many cars, now worked against him.  As the car pushed up the track, the low groove opened up and Hornaday was a sitting duck.  On lap 188, both David Green and Scott Riggs got by as the ACDelco car was really sliding up the track.

On lap 198, Hmiel and Scott Wimmer got together in turn three.  Wimmer turned completely around, but Hmiel was able to hang on.  In the smoke, Hornaday checked up to miss the cars.  Mike Skinner dropped to the inside and got by Hornaday, who was stuck on the high side.  Meanwhile, Vickers drove away and scored his first win of his career in the GMAC Chevy.  Keller finished second and Hornaday came home eighth.

The finish kept the ACDelco Chevrolet in the championship hunt.  Hornaday now trails Riggs by 58 points for the NASCAR Busch Series title.  With 12 races to go, it is still anybody’s championship.

The next race for Ron Hornaday and the ACDelco Chevrolet Monte Carlo is Saturday, August 16th, at Michigan International Speedway.