(Darlington, S.C.)- With 33 less inches of racing groove, the NASCAR Busch Series came into Darlington Raceway not knowing what to expect.  And what started out as a promising weekend for the ACDelco Chevrolet ended on a down note, as Ron Hornaday finished 23^rd at Darlington Raceway and slipped to 13^th in NASCAR Busch Series points.

Darlington Raceway stepped up to the safety plate and added the SAFER barriers to the walls of the 1.33-mile egg shaped track.  The addition of the new barriers was applauded by the drivers, but the fact that the new walls took over 3o-inches of valuable racing groove concerned everyone.  The biggest concern would be how to pass slower lapped cars with half-a-car width less room.  That concern played a factor in the disappointing weekend for Hornaday.

There were several high points to the weekend.  Hornaday and Team ACDelco were one of the fastest cars right off the truck and remained fifth fastest in race trim during the first practice.  Later, the ACDelco team switched over to qualifying trim and posted the 11^th fastest run of the opening practice round.

In qualifying, Hornaday let his right foot do the talking, as the ACDelco Monte Carlo qualified eighth fastest at over 167 mph.  Rookie-of-the-Year contender Kyle Busch won the Bud Pole with a speed of 168.619 mph.  Team RCR would share the fourth row as Hornaday’s teammate Kevin Harvick qualified seventh.

In happy hour, Hornaday battled a loose car for the first 30 minutes of practice.  Crew chief Butch Hylton and the ACDelco crew worked hard to try to work the problem out and by the end of the final practice, Hornaday felt like he had a decent car for the race. 

The sun shined for once at Darlington Raceway on a Busch race.  After two straight years of rain, the forecasters finally got a Saturday right in the Palmetto State.  When the green flag waved to start the race, Hornaday went into tire conservation mode.  He lightly squeezed the throttle to keep the rear tires from spinning and wearing out the Goodyear rubber on the abrasive racing surface.

On lap six, Hornaday passed both Johnny Sauter and Jason Leffler to move into the 7^th position.  P.J. Bryant, Hornaday’s spotter reminded him to go easy on the tires.  “I am…,” said Hornaday.  “She’s sticking good.  I have a really good car here guys.”  Hornaday continued to take care of the tires and on lap nine let both Johnny Benson and Jeff Burton pass.  The key to winning at Darlington is racing the track, not the other cars.  Hornaday was doing just that.

On lap 21, all the planning and patience that the ACDelco Chevrolet was showing went out the window.  Justin Ashburn, a lapped car, was having a miserable day.  He had hit the outside wall on two occasions and nearly took out the race leader on lap 19.  As Ashburn drove into turn three, he washed up the track and nearly hit the wall.  To correct for that, he tried to pull back down the track.  The problem was Hornaday had raced into the corner nearly 40 mph faster than Ashburn and seeing him in the high groove committed to the low side.  The two came together in the middle of the corner.  Ashburn was sent into the wall and out of the race.  Hornaday suffered heavy cosmetic damage to the right front of the ACDelco Monte Carlo and needed two pit stops to patch the hole.  Hornaday restarted the race in 34^th and all chances for a good finish had been knocked out by the inexperienced Ashburn.

With the front end damage, the balance of the ACDelco Chevrolet was hampered.  Hornaday worked his way up to 26^th, but was fighting the loose condition that he had in practice.  On lap 43, Donnie Neuenberger and Shane Sieg got together in turn three bringing out the caution.  None of the leaders pitted during the yellow, so Hornaday stayed out as well.

The race went back to green flag racing, but Hornaday struggled with the loose condition.  He fell back to 28^th position and tried to hang on until the next caution.  On lap 74, NASCAR threw a yellow for debris on the backstretch and the ACDelco crew went to work to fix their race car.  The team changed four tires and made both air pressure and wedge adjustments to the “blue deuce”.  Hornaday picked up five spots with the quick stop and restarted the race in 23^rd.

On the restart, Hornaday charged the field in hopes of gaining valuable track position.  The original game plan was scrapped in hopes of gaining spots and then getting a timely caution.  It nearly worked, but the caution flew sooner than the team had hoped. 

On lap 97, Mike Wallace got turned around in turn three and nailed the wall ending his afternoon.  Hornaday took his final set of tires and made another adjustment to tighten the car for the final run to the finish.  Hornaday restarted in 18^th.

The ACDelco Chevy tried to charge to the front, but the car just wasn’t good enough to catch the faster cars.  Hornaday settled in and tried to just keep the car off the fence.  On lap 134, leader Greg Biffle put Hornaday a lap down.  Biffle went on to score the win in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200.  Burton was second and David Green third.  Hornaday finished 23^rd.  It was an equally bad day for Hornaday’s teammate.  Kevin Harvick finished 21^st after a slow pit stop dropped him nearly 12 positions.  Darlington was just “too tough to tame” for Team RCR and Team ACDelco.