Hornaday, #32
WINFUEL Team Battle to 14th Place Finish at IRP
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (August 7,
2005) – Throughout his career, Ron Hornaday has experienced
a lot of success at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Saturday
night that experience and tough driving style helped him
battle his way to a fourteenth place finish in the #32 Braun
Racing / WINFUEL Chevy.
“We thought the car was
going to be better than it was tonight,” Hornaday said. “I
didn’t expect for it to change so much during a run. The car
would start out way loose with fresh tires and fuel, and
then by the end of the run it would get tight from the
middle off. We battled those guys as best we could and ended
up with a solid fourteenth place finish, but we came here to
win the race.”
Coming into the Kroger 200
at IRP, Ron Hornaday already had two wins to his credit at
the short track, including a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
win in 1997 and Busch Series win in 2000. In Hornaday’s five
NASCAR Busch Series starts at IRP, he had finished in the
top-10 three times (2000, 2002, 2003).
During the afternoon
qualifying session, Ron Hornaday went out late in the order
and paced the track in 22.378 seconds, placing him third on
the starting grid for the night’s event.
From the drop of the green
flag, it quickly became apparent to Hornaday and the WINFUEL
team that they would have to work on the cars handling all
night. During pit stops, the #32 team tried to make
improvements with air pressure and wedge adjustments, but
the changes were only good enough to run in the top-fifteen.
"Tonight the car was really
good on the short runs, but the handling really started to
go away on the long green flag runs,” crew chief Todd Lohse
explained. “Hornaday did a great job to battle for that
fourteenth place finish. We definitely had more driver than
car tonight.”
This coming weekend the
NASCAR Busch Series returns to Watkins Glen International
for the second road course event of the 2005 season, and for
the first time since 2001. Mexican road racing star Jorge
Goeters will be back behind the wheel of the #32 Braun
Racing Chevrolet looking to build on the success that he had
at the beginning of the season in the first road course
event in Mexico. Live coverage of the Zippo 200 begins this
Saturday, August 13 at 2:00 p.m. ET on NBC.
