Hornaday has 50 Wins and a Pink Slip!
Monday, October 3rd, 2011Story and photo by: Drew Hierwarter
Ron Hornaday, Jr. in the very first NASCAR Craftsman Truck race at Phoenix in 1995
“Hello, this is Dale Earnhardt.”
When Ron Hornaday, Jr. first heard those words on his telephone he thought it was somebody playing a prank on him. But it was no joke; Earnhardt was forming a team to compete in NASCAR’s newest race series, what was then known as the Craftsman Truck Series. He had seen what Hornaday could do while watching him race Winston West cars in the TNN Winter Heat races at Tucson Raceway Park.
Hornaday came from racing stock as his dad was a fixture on the West Coast NASCAR scene for many years. Ron, Jr started racing street stocks at Saugus Speedway just outside of Los Angeles and eventually moved up to the late models of the NASCAR Southwest Tour where he became the first driver in that series to win back-to-back championships in 1992 and ’93. During this time he also won 17 races in the old Winston West Series and was voted Most Popular Driver.
During the winter of 1994, The Nashville Network promoted a series of races for TV to give race fans something to watch during the long off-season. Held at Tucson Raceway Park in southern Arizona, these races proved to be not only a showcase for west coast racers, but also many drivers from the mid-west and east used these events to get away from the snow and cold. And it was there that Hornaday attracted the attention of Dale Earnhardt, Sr.
The first official race for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the new team of Earnhardt and Hornaday, was during the annual Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway in February of 1995. Hornaday rewarded Earnhardt’s confidence in him by qualifying on the pole. Hornaday won four more poles and earned a total of six wins that year. And he finished third in the points behind Joe Ruttman and champion Mike Skinner.
This past Saturday, Ron Hornaday, Jr. scored the 50th win of his NASCAR Truck Series career when he won the Kentucky 225 at Kentucky Speedway driving a truck owned by long time friend Kevin Harvick.
In between that first season and this 50th win, Hornaday has had 295 starts and racked up four championships in the truck series. He has led more than 9,000 laps and won over eight million dollars.
In spite of that record, as of this writing, Ron Hornaday, Jr. doesn’t know if or where he will be racing next year. KHI has announced that they are suspending all operations of their truck team at the end of this season leaving Hornaday out of a job.
At 53 he is way beyond the demographic that most teams and sponsors are currently looking for. It would be a shame if, given his obvious talent and his record, Hornaday can’t find a ride for 2012 and beyond, but that is a distinct possibility.