Ron Hornaday Jr.

Ron Hornaday Jr.

Hornaday in 2008
Born (1958-06-20) June 20, 1958
Palmdale, California, U.S.
Achievements 1996, 1998, 2007, 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion
1992, 1993 Featherlite Southwest Tour Champion
All-Time Wins Leader in Camping World Truck Series (51)
Awards 2000 Busch Series Most Popular Driver
1997, 2005 Craftsman Truck Series Most Popular Driver
1992 Featherlite Southwest Tour Most Popular Driver
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
46 races run over 11 years
2015 position 51st
Best finish 38th (2001)
First race 1992 Save Mart 300K (Sonoma)
Last race 2015 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (Atlanta)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 1 0
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
184 races run over 14 years
Best finish 3rd (2003)
First race 1998 First Union 200 (Nazareth)
Last race 2011 WYPALL 200 (Phoenix)
First win 2000 Econo Lodge 200 (Nazareth)
Last win 2004 Alan Kulwicki 250 (Milwaukee)
Wins Top tens Poles
4 70 1
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
360 races run over 17 years
2014 position 14th
Best finish 1st (1996, 1998, 2007, 2009)
First race 1995 Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic (Phoenix)
Last race 2014 WinStar World Casino & Resort 350 (Texas)
First win 1995 Racing Champions 200 (Tucson)
Last win 2011 Smith's 350 (Las Vegas)
Wins Top tens Poles
51 234 27
Statistics current as of March 1, 2015.

Ronald Lee "Ron" Hornaday Jr. (born June 20, 1958) is a retired American professional stock car racing driver. He is the father of former NASCAR driver Ronnie Hornaday, and son of the late Ron Hornaday Sr., a two-time Winston West Champion. Hornaday is a four-time champion in the Camping World Truck Series, his most recent coming in 2009. He was a long-time driver in NASCAR's Winston West Series, and is a Featherlite Southwest Tour Champion. He was noticed by Dale Earnhardt while participating in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series on ESPN2.

Racing career

Beginnings

Hornaday was born in Palmdale, California, and began racing in go-karts and motorcycles early in his career. Eventually, he moved up to race stock cars at Saugus Speedway. In 1992, he won his first championship in the Southwest Series as well as winning the Most Popular Driver award. He won the Southwest championship the next year as well, becoming the only driver to do so in series history until Jim Pettit won back to back titles in 2004-2005. Pettit won the title again in 2011 in the SRL Southwest Tour Series.

He made his Winston Cup debut in 1992 at the Save Mart 300K, where he started seventeenth but finished 32nd in Bob Fisher's No. 92 Chevrolet. He made another start later that year at Phoenix International Raceway, where he finished 25th. He ran at Phoenix the next year as well, finishing 22nd in the No. 76 Spears Motorsports car.

1995–1999

Hornaday celebrating his championship with owner Dale Earnhardt

Hornaday signed to drive the No. 16 RCCA Products/Papa John's Pizza Chevrolet Silverado owned by Dale Earnhardt, Inc. for the then-start-up Craftsman Truck Series. In the first season of competition, Hornaday won six races and four poles on his way to a third-place points finish. The next year, with sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts, Hornaday won four races and the series championship.

In 1997, despite seven wins, two of which came by leading every lap in the race, he finished fifth in points. He was able to re-claim his title in 1998 by garnering six wins. That season, he also made his Busch Series debut, driving four races for ST Motorsports, his best finish an eighth at Pikes Peak International Raceway. He also debuted a Winston Cup car for Tim Beverly at Sonoma, finishing fourteenth in the No. 17 NAPA Chevy.

In 1999, he was unable to win the championship, and announced he would drive the No. 3 NAPA Chevy for DEI's Busch program the following year.

2000–2004

Hornaday began racing full-time in the Busch Series in 2000. He picked up wins at Nazareth Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park and finished fifth in points, runner-up to Kevin Harvick for Rookie of the Year honors. He was also voted Most Popular Driver. Unfortunately, Earnhardt elected to move Hornaday's team up to the Cup series in 2001 and hire Michael Waltrip to drive the car, and Hornaday was released.

Hornaday signed with A.J. Foyt Racing in the Cup series, driving the No. 14 Conseco-sponsored Pontiac Grand Prix. Despite posting a 9th-place finish at Las Vegas, Hornaday struggled throughout the year and finished 38th in points with just two Top 20 finishes and four DNQs in the second half of the season. Hornaday later criticized Foyt for dismissing him so late in the season. During the 2001 season, Hornaday returned to the Busch Series on a part-time basis, running the No. 11 for HighLine Performance Group before finishing out the year with The Curb Agajanian Performance Group, posting three top-tens.

In 2002, he drove for Hendrick Motorsports' truck team at the season-opening Florida Dodge Dealers 250, where he finished 12th. After Hendrick closed the doors to its truck team, Hornaday moved to their Busch program, filling in for an injured Ricky Hendrick in the No. 5 GMAC-sponsored Chevy, his best finish 15th at Darlington Raceway. A few races later, he replaced Lyndon Amick in the No. 26 Dr Pepper-sponsored car for Carroll Racing. He had eight Top 10's and a pole, finishing 18th in points despite only running 30 of the 36 races. He also capped the season off with a win in the truck series at Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving for Xpress Motorsports.

In 2003, Hornaday signed to drive the No. 2 ACDelco-sponsored Chevy for Richard Childress Racing. He won at Nazareth and posted seventeen Top 10's, finishing 3rd in points. He followed that up with a win at The Milwaukee Mile and a 4th-place points finish the following season.

2005–2011

At the end of 2004, Hornaday was released in favor of Clint Bowyer, and he returned to the Truck Series. He reunited with a long-time best friend of his, Kevin Harvick, and signed to drive the No. 6 GM Goodwrench Chevy for Kevin Harvick Incorporated. Hornaday soon picked up a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway and finished fifth in points. In 2006, the team lost its Goodwrench sponsorship and switched to the No. 33 to yield the No. 6 to Mark Martin's Roush Racing effort. Running unsponsored for most of the year, Hornaday picked up two victories this year at Mansfield and Kentucky He also has two top-tens in five Busch Series starts that year.

With sponsorship backing from Camping World, he continued his dominance in the Truck Series in 2007, winning races at two tracks for the first time in his career. He took the checkers at Lowe's in the Quaker Steak & Lube 200. Two weeks later, after a what-should-have-been-a-win-weekend at Mansfield, Hornaday outlasted Kyle Busch to win the AAA Insurance 200 at Dover. He continued his chase for a third title with a victory at O'Reilly Raceway Park in the Power Stroke Diesel 200, his 17th win on a short track.

On November 16, 2007 Hornaday won his third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship by overcoming a 29-point deficit on Mike Skinner.

On September 10, 2008, ESPN's Shaun Assael reports Hornaday admitted to using testosterone cream. He used it to treat Graves' disease.[1]

On December 21, 2008, Hornaday's father Ron Hornaday Sr., died due to cancer.

On June 20, 2009, Hornaday won the Copart 200 at the Milwaukee Mile on his 51st birthday. He is one of the few racing drivers to win a race on his birthday. On July 24, 2009, Hornaday became the first Camping World Truck Series driver to win four races in a row by winning at O'Reilly Raceway Park. On August 1, 2009, he won the Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, tying Richard Petty and Bobby Allison as the only drivers to win five consecutive races in their NASCAR careers.

2007 championship-winning Truck

On November 13, 2009, he won his fourth Camping World Truck Series championship, joining Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jimmie Johnson as the only drivers to win 4 or more titles in the three major series of NASCAR. He also became the first driver since Greg Biffle in 2000 to clinch the title before the last race of the season.

For the final three races of the 2010 Sprint Cup season, Stewart-Haas Racing hired Hornaday as a standby driver should expectant father Ryan Newman have to leave the track. Newman became a father on November 18, 2010, three days before the season finale.

In 2011, Hornaday was second in the series being 15 points behind Austin Dillon when he reached the penultimate race of the year at Texas. There Hornaday raced behind rival Kyle Busch and reached second place. When Hornaday passed by Busch on lap 13, he made contact with Busch to avoid a slowing truck of Johnny Chapman and in the next turn under a caution, Busch intentionally slammed into Hornaday pushing him head-on into the wall. Hornaday was mathematically eliminated from contention for the Truck title. Busch received suspension from the NNS and NSCS race that weekend as a result.

2012–2014

During the 2011 season, it was announced that Hornaday would drive for Joe Denette Motorsports for the 2012 season in the No. 9 truck.[2]

Before the 2013 season, Hornaday returned to JDM, now NTS Motorsports, to drive the No. 9 Chevrolet. Hornaday started off on a high-note in his finishes with a few top tens in the first few races. In the third race of the season at Rockingham Speedway, Hornaday intentionally wrecked rookie Darrell Wallace Jr. under caution to retaliate for prior contact. He was penalized during the race to restart in 37th spot. For his actions Hornaday was fined $25,000, lost 25 points and was placed on probation by NASCAR until June 12. The penalty dropped him from 4th to 15th in the Truck Series standings.[3]

With one race remaining in the season, Hornaday was released from the No. 9 truck by NTS Motorsports; in the season finale he drove a sixth truck for Turner Scott Motorsports.[4] He started the 2014 season once again driving for TSM in the No. 30 truck at Daytona International Speedway, with former KHI sponsor Rheem backing the team.[5] Due to an internal dispute within TSM, Hornaday did not race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, after it was initially reported that all three truck teams would shut down.[6]

Two days later on September 2, Hornaday was released and Turner Scott Motorsports dissolved the 30 team, with owners Steve Turner and Harry Scott Jr. in the process of filing lawsuits against each other. Hornaday was 4th in points prior to the Canada race, and still 6th in points when he was released. On September 13, it was announced that Rheem would partner again with Hornaday at Las Vegas and Texas later this year with NTS Motorsports, the team that had released him in 2013.[7]

Sprint Cup Series return

On January 21, 2015, Curtis Key's The Motorsports Group announced that Hornaday would be their primary driver for 2015, running the No. 30 Chevy in the Sprint Cup Series.[8] It marked Hornaday's first return to the Cup Series since 2003. The primary sponsor was announced as Hornaday's truck sponsor Smokey Mountain.

In his first attempt, Hornaday failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 after posting the slowest time in qualifying and then lacking the necessary speed to stay in the draft in his Budweiser Duel race. In his second attempt, Hornaday qualified and made his first race in 12 years. Hornaday finished 42nd due to his rear gear breaking. His team skipped the next 3 races in the West Coast Swing to prepare for Martinsville. He did not qualify after wrecking his car during qualifying. After Hornaday once again failed to qualify at Bristol, he was released by the team. He was replaced by Jeff Green and Travis Kvapil.

Recognition

In Palmdale, Hornaday's hometown, April 8 was declared Ron Hornaday Jr. Day on April 8, 2010. A roundabout in the Palmdale Auto Mall was also named after Hornaday on April 8.[9]

Images

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500
Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish
2001 A. J. Foyt Enterprises Pontiac 42 17
2015 The Motorsports Group Chevrolet DNQ

Nationwide Series

Camping World Truck Series

* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points

References

  1. "Ron Hornaday Jr. gets ride for 2012". ESPN. November 18, 2011. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  2. "Hornaday Jr. penalized for intentional wreck at Rockingham". Miami Herald. Miami, FL. April 17, 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
  3. "Hornaday to drive for different team in finale". NASCAR.com. November 8, 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  4. "Ron Hornaday Jr. to drive for Turner Scott Motorsports in Truck Series opener at Daytona". Fox Sports. February 14, 2014. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
  5. "Ron Hornaday won't compete in trucks series this weekend". Foxsports.com. August 27, 2014. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
  6. http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2014/9/13/ron-hornaday-jr-sponsorship-for-two-truck-series-races.html
  7. Aragon, Dominic (January 21, 2015). "Source: Hornaday to attempt Daytona 500 for The Motorsports Group". theracingexperts.com. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  8. "Hornaday: Pride of Palmdale", Antelope Valley Press, April 9, 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ron Hornaday.
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Mike Skinner
Jack Sprague
Todd Bodine
Johnny Benson Jr.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion
1996
1998
2007
2009
Succeeded by
Jack Sprague
Jack Sprague
Johnny Benson Jr.
Todd Bodine
Preceded by
Rick Carelli
NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Champion
1992, 1993
Succeeded by
Steve Portenga
Awards
Preceded by
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
NASCAR Busch Series Most Popular Driver
2000
Succeeded by
Kevin Harvick
Preceded by
Jimmy Hensley
Steve Park
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Most Popular Driver
1997
2005
Succeeded by
Stacy Compton
Johnny Benson Jr.


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