The weather in Nazareth was uncooperative on Saturday and forced NASCAR to cancel qualifying and set the field according to owner points for the third time in four weeks.  The Dr Pepper Racing Team was designated the 26^th starting position, however that deficit was overcome by patience and experience.

Nazareth is a unique 1-mile, five-turn flat race track that Hornaday is familiar with and confident about.  As he should be, one of his two Busch Series victories came there.  Ron was only able to run the first practice session on Saturday before having to fly to Charlotte for the Winston Open.  However, Andy Santerre assisted Dr Pepper Racing by setting up the car for Hornaday and it proved to valuable.

The beginning of the Stacker 2 200 was plagued with three cautions, resulting in only six green flag laps of the initial 22 laps.  Hornaday capitalized right away picking up spots each time and by the time the green flag waved on Lap 23; the Dr Pepper Chevy was riding in 14^th place.  The field settled down for nearly 40 laps before #77 Jimmie Kitchens cut a tire on Lap 61 and the leaders were preparing for their first pit stop of the afternoon.

Hornaday brought the Dr Pepper Chevy down pit road in 11^th and the “Thirst Crew” scaled the wall and put on four fresh tires and filled it with fuel.  Ron needed to dodge a rolling tire from #60 Greg Biffle’s pit stall that could have been costly if not avoided. 

The Dr Pepper Racing Team entered the Top 10 following the 5^th Yellow Flag and Hornaday continued to methodically collect positions throughout the long green flag run that followed.  Teams began making green flag pit stops on Lap 158 and at that time the Dr Pepper Chevy was cruising in 7^th.  Most of the pit stops were through before #37 Jeff Purvis blew an engine and dropped oil on the track surface before coming to a halt in the race groove.  A trailing Greg Biffle made an effort to avoid the stalled car, however the oil would not allow his car to turn and resulted in a heavy collision that brought out a 20-minute red flag with 26 laps to go.  Purvis was brought to a nearby hospital where he is reported in serious but stable condition following damage to his head and vertebrae.      

“It was a great weekend and a lot of fun.  I’ve got to thank Dave Carroll and Todd Lohse for allowing me to drive this Dr Pepper Chevy and Andy Santerre for helping us out this weekend,” exclaimed Hornaday.  “We’ve run good the last two weeks and look forward to heading back to Charlotte.  I’ll be running the Double Duty again next week with Bam Racing in the Winston Cup and am looking to transfer the extra track time into more positive results for this Dr Pepper Team.”