| Richmond, VA (May 3, 2001)
 Team
Conseco will use chassis 1402 this weekend in Richmond. This is
the same car that Hornaday led with at Martinsville earlier in
the year and scored his first top-10 finish in the Winston Cup
Series coming home ninth at Las Vegas.
This will be
the fourth race that Fred Graves and Hornaday have been
together. In first two races together, Hornaday led twice at
Martinsville and at Talladega. During the year and a half they
spent in the Craftsman Truck Series they visited victory lane 13
times and won the Championship in 1998.
"I've watched the Winston Cup night races for years
dreaming of the time when I would be on the track with them. It
has taken so long to get to this point. Now that dream has come
true."
-Ron Hornaday, Team Conseco Driver
Bad luck strikes Team Conseco in Richmond
Richmond, VA (May 5, 2001) - Team Conseco driver Ron
Hornaday was on the verge of a good finish when an alternator
failure dropped him from contention in Saturday night's Pontiac
Excitement 400 NASCAR Winston Cup Series event at the Richmond
International Speedway.
The No. 14 Conseco Pontiac was starting to come alive when
Hornaday reported that the alternator, a part on the engine that
provides power to the motor and continuously charges the
battery, had stopped working. As a result, Hornaday had to stop
twice just to have new batteries installed in an effort to keep
the Conseco Pontiac in the race, spoiling a good finish. In the
end, the Conseco Pontiac rolled across the start finish line in
31st place.
After the race was over, the team raised the hood to try and
find out why the alternator had failed. The alternator belt had
slipped off the pulley causing the failure.
"I can't believe it," Hornaday said upon hearing the
news. "I knew we had a problem when I checked the gauges
and saw that the alternator was not longer working. I've heard
about it happening to other people, but this is the first time
I've had it happen to me. The guys did a great job of changing
batteries. We could have lost a lot more spots than we did. I
think I'm going to spend tomorrow out in my yard looking for a
four-leaf clover. We sure could use it."
FX will air The Winston and The Winston Open from Lowe's Motor
Speedway in Concord, North Carolina live on Saturday, May 19,
with television coverage starting at 7:30PM E.D.T.
Back |