Invitations to this year’s NASCAR Camping World Truck championship party came a bit late for four-time champion Ron Hornaday Jr. It remains to be seen if he has time to return an emphatic RSVP for next month’s South Florida championship festivities.
Hornaday stood ninth in late August after finishing 24th at Bristol. He trailed then-leader Johnny Sauter by 69 points – a race and a half – after July’s event at Nashville Superspeedway.
In other words, Hornaday had been left in the dust and all but out of the title picture. Not so fast.
Hornaday’s 51st series victory, and first in Las Vegas, halved a 42-point deficit to 21 heading into the season’s final four races. With two wins and top-10 finishes in eight of the last nine races, the Palmdale, Calif., competitor’s “drive for five” is very much alive.
Las Vegas was Hornaday’s 16th win since turning 50, two shy of Harry Gant’s NASCAR national series record total. Hornaday sat on the Keystone Light Pole for a seventh consecutive season, breaking a record he jointly held with Mike Skinner.
Hornaday’s stay in Kevin Harvick Inc.’s owners championship leading No. 2 Chevrolet was supposed to be brief – two races – but he’ll remain with crew chief Bruce Cook at least for Talladega. Cook also oversaw set-up of the team’s No. 33 truck in which Hornaday finished first, 10th and fourth at Atlanta, Chicago and New Hampshire.
“I’m looking forward to be back in the No. 2 truck this weekend,” said Hornaday, who won the Keystone Light Pole for last year’s race, led the most laps but was knocked out by accident. “With four races to go, Talladega is a track where we will just have to hold our breath all weekend and hope we don’t get caught in the big one. We are in the midst of this championship battle and would really like to make it out of Talladega with momentum.”
| 
|