July 28, 2009
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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Last Friday night at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Ron Hornaday accomplished something no driver had ever done in the Camping World Truck Series by winning four consecutive races. And he had to take the white flag twice in order to do so, when it was mistakenly waved a lap early.
Five drivers have won three in a row, including Hornaday, who counting the previous three races had done it twice, the first time coming in 1997. The victory at ORP is his fifth win of the season and helped him extend his points lead to 174 over Mike Skinner.
“I have to thank Kevin and DeLana [Harvick],” said Hornaday in a Service News Wire Service article on nascar.com. “People ask me how I do it, and it is those two people right there. They just keep putting trucks underneath us, getting the right employees, just so. Awesome. Four in a row, that's cool. Three has been done, and to do this says a lot.”
It does indeed say a lot, especially of Hornaday’s dominance in the Truck series. He is a three-time series Champion with 44 race wins to his name. He has won more Truck races than any other driver holds just about all of the notable records in the series.
His three Truck Championships have him currently tied with Jack Sprague, and he is well on his way to winning what would be a record fourth series Championship. He had a shot at a fourth title last season, but a crash at Phoenix cost him and he finished the year 7 points behind Johnny Benson.
While a 174 point lead is certainly an advantage, Hornaday remains cautiously optimistic.
“Anything can happen. We’ve already led the points once this year. Had three bad races, blew a tire, had another tire problem the following week,” Hornaday was quoted as saying in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article by Carlos Mendez. “Just as long as we keep living by our mistakes, don’t let what happened to us last year happen again, we definitely have a good shot.... I’d really like my fourth championship.”
The Truck series was started fifteen years ago to provide a stepping stone for young drivers on their way to the Cup series to get a feel for the tracks and to learn how to drive using radial tires, to basically get a feel for the world of NASCAR. While that has happened, Hornaday and a few other drivers have made the Truck series their permanent home.
The Truck series has undergone several major changes recently, the biggest coming when longtime title sponsor Craftsman announced it would not be returning, leaving the series without a sponsor. Camping World stepped forward to fill the void.
In an effort to save the teams money during the difficult economic times, NASCAR has made several rule changes, most of them completely absurd. For example, trucks can no longer change tires and refuel on the same pitstop and are forced to make two stops under caution, or pick between tires or fuel if they have to make green flag stops.
Yet despite all of the changes, Hornaday continues to perform as strong as ever. He has just about written the history book in the Truck Series and looks forward to winning his next championship.
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