(Nashville, TN.) – It was a long night of yellow flags and rain.  But Ron Hornaday and the ACDelco Chevrolet survived the distractions and scored a fifth place finish at Nashville Superspeedway.

The ACDelco team was on their game from the very minute the garage opened.  Hornaday drove like a man on a mission and was one of the five fastest cars in race trim in the first practice.  The team switched over to qualifying and remained fast compared to the rest of the NASCAR Busch Series field.  In fact, Hornaday felt like he had a great shot at winning the Busch pole.

In qualifying, Hornaday battled a tight condition.  The qualifying time was good enough to keep the ACDelco Chevy in the top-10, but it was disappointing to the driver and crew.  “It just chattered the tires getting in,” said Hornaday.  “I left at least three-tenths or more out there.  It was just too tight.”  Martin Truex, Jr. won the Busch pole for a second time at Nashville Superspeedway.

 In happy hour, Hornaday continued to dazzle.  He topped the speed charts on three separate occasions during the 45 minute final practice before finally finishing third fastest.  At the end of the practice, Hornaday and crew chief Butch Hylton reviewed what they had learned and brainstormed on the race setup.  Things looked good for the race.  But would severe weather hold off?

On Saturday afternoon, heavy storms moved into the Nashville area.  The rain skirted the track for most of the day.  A few light showers wet the track just before the start, but the track was quickly dried and Nashville 300 started on time.

The green flag waved to start the race and Hornaday lived up to his “master of the restart” nickname.  He quickly disposed of David Green and Bobby Hamilton, Jr. on lap one.  Just two laps later, he moved passed Jason Keller for fifth.  ACDelco crew chief Butch Hylton told Hornaday he was the fastest car on the track.  On lap five, Hornaday picked off his RCR teammate Clint Bowyer and moved into fourth.

The first caution flag of the night waved when Tony Raines hit the wall on lap 17.  Hornaday radioed the crew that the car was a tick tight getting back to the throttle.  Hylton told him they would make a track bar adjustment on the first stop.

The green flag waved to restart the race and Hornaday took off after his next victim.  On lap 25, he raced past Martin Truex, Jr. for third.  He was unable to gain any immediate ground on the top-two, so Hornaday settled into a rhythm and clicked off laps.

On lap 58, David Stremme cut a right front tire and hit the wall in turn two.  The caution allowed Hornaday to make his first pit stop of the day.  The “Real Car Guys” changed all four tires and made the track bar adjustment.  It wasn’t a spectacular stop, but it kept the ACDelco Chevy in the top-ten.  He restarted sixth.

Hornaday again made his way to the front on the drop of the green flag.  By lap 75, Hornaday had raced his way into third position and was closing in on the front two cars.  The race on the track was heating up, but so was the race against the weather.  Heavy storms lit up the NASCAR radar and the entire field knew that rain was coming and the battle to lead at halfway took on a whole new urgency.

On lap 84, Regan Smith crashed hard into the turn three wall bringing out a long caution.  During the cleanup, lightening flashed behind the grandstands.  NASCAR hustled the cleanup and gave the one to go signal.  But the Nashville track told the fans to head under the stands because of the approaching storms.  With the lights out on the pace car, the fans stopped their evacuation and stood in the aisles awaiting the restart.  The track again told the fans to head for cover.  NASCAR put the lights back on the pace car.  With the fans heading for shelter and the storm approaching, NASCAR decided to red flag the race, just 17 laps short of halfway. 

The drivers got out of their cars, but still no rain.  But the storms soon arrived.  It rained very hard at the track for more than one hour.  But as quickly as the storm approached, it passed and NASCAR dried the track once again.  The drivers returned to the cars and the race was back underway.

The field stayed under caution for four laps to help finish the drying of the track and pit road.  On lap 100, the pit lane opened and the field came down for pit stops.  The ACDelco team nailed their second stop.  The changed all four tires in 15.90 seconds and left pit road in 12^th.  Many of the back markers just got gas, so the running order was not a true order.

On the restart, Hornaday quickly disposed of the cars on old tires.  He raced back into the top-five in just four laps and was quickly catching the lead group of cars.  On lap 110, he passed Stacy Compton for fourth.  On lap 111, down went John Borneman, III, and Hornaday was third.  Just 14 laps later, Hornaday passed Mike Bliss for second place in turn one.

On lap 143, David Green blew a motor and the caution flag waved.  Hornaday made his final and most important stop of the day.  On pit road, Hornaday was able to lead the lap and get five bonus points based on his pit position.  The ACDelco crew changed all four tires, but had a lug nut hang on the left front.  The stop took 16.91 seconds and Hornaday left pit road in fifth position.

The race restarted on lap 148 and the “master” planned his march to the front.  On lap 149, Hornaday passed Kenny Wallace for fourth.  Lap 157 saw Tim Fedewa lose third to the “blue deuce”.  It was looking good for Hornaday, but soon the ACDelco Monte Carlo developed a bad push.  Hornaday couldn’t charge off the corners like he did early in the race and soon fell back to fourth.  Hylton radioed to Hornaday that they were real close on fuel and to save as much as possible.  Hornaday gave a light battle to Mike Bliss for fourth, but let him eventually go to save fuel.

On lap 221, just four laps short of the finish, the leader of the race ran out of gas.  Kyle Busch had held a three second lead when the well went dry.   He attempted to get onto pit lane but missed the opening and slid to a stop in the infield grass.  The yellow was displayed and the race finished under caution.  Jason Leffler took the checkered flag and scored his first win of his Busch Series career.  Truex finished second and Bowyer finished third.  Hornaday crossed the finish line in fifth for a great point’s day.

After the race, the ACDelco team learned two things that made the finish under caution a lucky break.  First, the car took 22.1 gallons of fuel after the race.  That meant that Hornaday would have run out of gas with one or two laps to go.  Second, the right front tire had a fist size bubble on the inside of the tire where it is molded to the sidewall.  According to Goodyear engineers, the bubble might have been caused by a dirty mold at the factory and was a defective tire.  It was that tire that probably created the tight condition late in the race.

The top-five finished helped Hornaday gain some points in the chase for the championship.  He is now ninth in points, 401 markers out of first.  But he is less than 100 out of fifth.  The next race for the ACDelco Chevrolet is Saturday evening, June 19th at Kentucky Speedway.