His strong fourth-place showing in Saturday's Busch Series race and a qualifying run that put him eighth on the Winston Cup starting grid had Team Conseco anxiously anticipating Sunday. Instead, "On the second pit stop we made a bad adjustment and killed the race car," said Tommy Lamance, the Team Conseco manager. "Ron did everything he could do. We did it to him, we dialed him out of it." - "We had a top-10 car and we just messed him up in the pits." Lamance said Hornaday's car was pushing. So the crew tried to free him up by adjusting the track bar, which controls the car's center of gravity. Instead, they aggravated the problem. By the time they correct-ed the problem halfway through the race. Hornaday had slid back to 39th. To further compound the frustration, Hornaday three times found himself astride the leaders on caution flags in the second half of the race.

The "Master of the Restart" stayed with Mike and Rusty Wallace and Jeff Burton wheelwell to wheelwell, but could not over-come the one-lap deficit. "Those guys raced me hard not to let me get my lap back," Hornaday said. "We went the wrong way with the track bar, and a long green flag run put us a lap down. "We had a good car that could have been in the top 15. But hey, I've made mistakes too. You have to be humble about it and learn from your mistakes." - Brian Golden (av press)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pre-Race - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Phoenix has been like a second home track for me.  I’ve raced here so much over the years. Southwest tour cars, Craftsman trucks and now I get to drive a cup car here.  I’ve said all year this has been like a dream come true.”    –Ron Hornaday, Team Conseco Driver
 
Team Conseco will use chassis 1407 this weekend in the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.  Hornaday has driven this car on four previous occasions including the Bristol and Dover spring races, as well as in Chicago.
 
In five Craftsman Truck Series events at Phoenix, Hornaday has scored one pole, two victories and four top five finishes.  During those five years, he always qualified and finished within the top 10.