CONCORD, N.C. (May 28)

Team Conseco spent the first half of Sunday night’s NASCAR Winston Cup Series event adjusting the Conseco Pontiac to allow Ron Hornaday to make a run at the leaders in the final 100 miles of the race. But a black flag from NASCAR resulted in lost track position and a 36th place finish in NASCAR’s longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600.

The Conseco Pontiac started the 600-mile race from the 27th position. Hornaday moved up into the top -20 on a couple of occasions, but fell back to the mid 20s on longer runs. As the temperature dropped, the track started changing and crew chief Donnie began calling for air pressure adjustments to help improve the racecar.

By the second half of the race, the Conseco Pontiac was running lap times consistent with those cars running in the top 10 and was ready to make a run to the front. With less that 100 laps to go, Hornaday reported to the crew that the car was the best it had been all night when NASCAR told Brown to have Hornaday report to pit road. A spotter thought they had seen smoke coming from the rear end of the racecar as he left pit road. Brown argued with the inspectors, explaining that Hornaday had spun the tires leaving pit road, but NASCAR wouldn’t budge.

Hornaday came into the pits a lap later and NASCAR inspectors looked all over the Conseco Pontiac but were unable to find any smoke, or source of an oil leak. When Hornaday returned to action he was listed five laps down to the leaders.

A few laps later, NASCAR made Hornaday report to pit road for a second time. Again the crew looked all over the car. The only thing they could find was a line on the back of the engine that was smoking. A crewman put a wrench on the line and NASCAR allowed the car to return to the track. Hornaday finished the race on a lap by himself in 36th position.

“These guys just never say die,” Hornaday said of Team Conseco after the race was over. “We're going to get these things changed around. Like I said, these guys on this Conseco Pontiac never stop. They really want to race and they really want to win. We're pretty excited now. Things are starting to work good. I can’t wait to get to Dover."