Hornaday awarded Raybestos Rookie of The Race
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 15)— Team Conseco driver Ron Hornaday scored an 18th-place finish and was awarded the Raybestos Rookie of the Race award in the Old Dominion 500 at the Martinsville Speedway Monday afternoon.

Constant rain throughout the day on Sunday forced NASCAR to postpone the running of the Old Dominion 500 until Monday morning.

Starting 17th, Hornaday stayed inside the top 20 for most of the race and ran as high as 12th.

Hornaday finished 18th on the same lap with the leaders and was the highest-finishing Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year candidate in the race.

" We ran 500 laps at Martinsville!” said an exuberant Hornaday afterwards. "I’m just so proud of Team Conseco. We unloaded on Friday and we knew we needed to step up in qualifying. We put our heads together and hammered out a plan and went from 41st in practice to 17th in qualifying. I’ve said all along we can do it, and this weekend we proved it."

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"We had a great race going back in April when we were here.  We ran into some problems in qualifying but we had a good car and led the race for a while.  It’s just another one of those races where we ran so well during the race and then something happened to us right at the end.  Not this time.  We’re going to use the same car again and this time, we’re going to go all the way.”   –Ron Hornaday, Team Conseco Driver
 
Team Conseco will use chassis 1402 this weekend in the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville Speedway.  This is the car that carried Ron Hornaday to a 9th-place finish in Las Vegas, led for 24 laps in the first Martinsville race and did the famous “wall walking” routine in Loudon.
 
In the April race at Martinsville, Hornaday led a total of 24 laps and was running in the top 10 with five laps to go when he cut down the right front tire, and ended up finishing 27th.
 
 
Hornaday’s Track Record
 
First Winston Cup Start:  Sears Point (1992)  -  Started 17th    Finished 32nd                
Last Race:  Charlotte  -  Started 35th   Finished 38th 
Best Start:  3rd (Bristol 8/25/01)                   
Best Finish:  9th (Las Vegas 3/4/01)
Current position in Winston Cup Series Points: 36th