Three months after wrapping up his fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship, Ron Hornaday Jr. is eager to get the new season started.
Doing it at Daytona gets the 51-year-old Californian fired up — if in fact Hornaday ever needed motivation to get behind the wheel.
“Since I first sat behind the wheel of a race car I always wanted to go to Daytona,” said Hornaday. “I know a lot of drivers say that, but driving through the tunnel at Daytona always gives me chills. To win a race at Daytona would fulfill a dream. It would be a great accomplishment.”
There have been changes at Kevin Harvick Inc. since Hornaday and Kevin and DeLana Harvick accepted their series championship accolades in South Florida.
Rick Ren, Hornaday’s crew chief through a pair of championship and second-place runs, moved over to Kyle Busch Motorsports during the off season.
Longtime car owner and crew chief Dave Fuge, who participated in championship efforts by Mike Bliss (2002) and Travis Kvapil (2003), will be atop the pit box when the green flag falls Friday night.
Fuge believes the transition will be seamless. “I’ve known Ron forever; raced with him and against him for 20 years,” said Fuge, who shared a victory with Hornaday in 2002 at Homestead- Miami Speedway.
There’s no pressure to succeed Ren, who arguably was the series’ best crew chief over the past three seasons.
“Not any more pressure than I put on myself,” said Fuge. “Everyone at KHI expects a lot and I expect the same.”
KHI again will field a second truck. The No. 2 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet will be shared by Elliott Sadler — who gets the call in Daytona — and Harvick.
“I haven’t drafted in a truck before, so it will be a little unique,” said Sadler. “It’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out at the end. The trucks tend to come down to the last 50 feet of the race before you know who is going to be able to pull off the win.” Auto Racing Daily
CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR 0 Carlos Contreras Chevrolet Potencia Blast Energy Shot / Alpina Spring Water 1 Nelson Piquet Jr. Toyota Red Horse Racing 1 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet Koma Chillaxation Drink 2 Elliott Sadler Chevrolet Hunt Brothers Pizza 3 Austin Dillon* Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 4 Ricky Carmichael Chevrolet Monster Energy 5 Mike Skinner Toyota International Trucks / Monaco RV 6 Donnie Neuenberger Chevrolet E-Z Slider 7 Justin Lofton* Toyota VisitPIT.com 7 Sean Murphy Chevrolet Dietz & Watson 9 Max Papis Toyota GEICO 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb* Ford drivenmale.com 12 Mario Gosselin Chevrolet TireMonkey.com 13 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet ThorSport Racing 14 Rick Crawford Ford Lilly Trucking of Virginia 15 Ted Musgrave Toyota Billy Ballew Motorsports 17 Timothy Peters Toyota K&N Filters 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Heluva Good 21 Donny Lia Dodge SS Green Light Racing 23 Jason White Ford GunBroker.com 28 L.W. Miller Chevrolet FDNY Racing 30 Todd Bodine Toyota Germain Racing 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet Longhorn Smokeless Tobacco 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet S&W Services 46 Dennis Setzer Dodge Plane Guts 47 Brett Butler* Chevrolet Fuel-Doctor.com 48 Bryan Silas Chevrolet Rockingham Speedway 49 Chad McCumbee Chevrolet FT-11 Multi-Purpose Degreaser / Polar Bear 150 51 Aric Almirola Toyota Graceway Pharmaceuticals 56 Tayler Malsam Toyota Toyota 57 Norm Benning Chevrolet Norm Benning Racing 60 Stacy Compton Toyota SafeAuto Insurance Company 74 Derrike Cope Dodge Stratus Racing Group 76 Ryan Hackett Chevrolet Sears Sand & Gravel 81 David Starr Toyota Zachry 85 Brent Raymer Ford Ford. Drive one. 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet Menards 89 Wayne Edwards Chevrolet Lafferty Performance / Blue Ox / Handy Helper 93 Shane Sieg Chevrolet S&W Services 95 Johnny Benson Ford Plane Guts 98 Landon Cassill Chevrolet etc. Easy to Install.com 153 Justin Hobgood Chevrolet Georgia Beef Board
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