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(Dover, Del.) After
several races of bad luck, Ron Hornaday and the
ACDelco Chevrolet shook the monkey off their back
and posted a seventh place finish at Dover Downs
International Speedway. It was Hornaday’s first
top-10 finish since July 24th.
The weekend was a
return to basics for the ACDelco team and right
off the transporter, Hornaday showed that the new
approach was what he had needed all along. In the
first practice, Hornaday was 12th
fastest and saving the car for a chance at a
top-five start in qualifying.
In qualifying,
Hornaday’s crew made a couple changes to the car
to give him a shot at the pole, but the
adjustments didn’t work for the “blue deuce”.
Hornaday chattered the front tires getting into
turn one because the car was too tight and that
cost him not only a top-five start, but a top-10
start as well. Hornaday crossed the timing lights
18th fastest.
During happy hour,
Hornaday and team ACDelco got down to business.
He was one of the fastest cars on both new tires
and old tires. But the ACDelco Monet Carlo was
still too tight as the run progressed. The team
made a spring change for race day in an attempt to
help free the car on long runs.
Hornaday took the
green flag to start the Stacker 2 Hundred and
wasted little time in getting to the front. He
had cracked the top-10 in the first 30 laps of the
race and stayed there the entire afternoon. Great
pit stops from the “Real Car Guys” crew kept
Hornaday near the front of the pack all day long.
Late in the race,
Hornaday was just too tight to hang on to a
top-five finish. He drifted back to ninth with
just 15 laps to go, but mistakes late in the race
by Kenny Wallace and Mark Martin, allowed Hornaday
to climb back to seventh. Hornaday took the
checkered flag for his first top-10 finish in his
last six races.
Martin Truex, Jr. took
the win at Dover. It was the first race the
NASCAR Busch Series point’s leader had won since
Nazareth, Pa. in May. Mike McLaughlin finished
second and Kasey Kahne, who led the most laps,
finished third. Truex, Jr. extended his point’s
lead over Kyle Busch by 152 points. Hornaday
remained sixth, just 84 points out of fifth.
The next race for the NASCAR Busch Series is
Saturday, October 9th at Kansas Speedway. |
Buckle Up
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