Ron Hornaday knew that he got lucky on Friday night in Atlanta and he didn’t care. In fact, he’d rather be lucky the last eight races of the 2011 season compared to what his No. 33 ARMOUR Chevrolet team has been to start the season.
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[/media-credit]“See that trophy? We stole it tonight,” Hornaday said. “But we’ll take it any way we can get it.”
Hornaday’s 49th career victory in 292 Nascar Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) starts was on a fuel mileage gamble. After getting behind early, real early from a lap one incident, Hornaday’s team spent much of the night repairing the damage to the nose of the truck.
“Brain fade on my part,” Hornaday said about lap one. “Billy O [spotter] said everybody was checking up and I ran into the back of the 15 and I locked the brakes up. I do something weird with my brakes on the restarts and I had nothing left, I was already down to the floor and I skid into the back of him.”
Crediting his team with doing and awesome job in the pits, part of Hornaday’s break came from the tape they used to repair the damage. Repeatedly saying it’s amazing what tape does to a truck at Atlanta and that it ended up helping the team with their adjustments.
Crew chief Jeff Hensley and Hornaday thought they had brought a contending truck to the track but after qualifying 17th it appeared to be the start of another frustrating weekend.
Said Hensley, “We had a decent truck in practice and I don’t know why we qualify as slow as we have on these bigger tracks.”
Because of the damage and having to pit numerous times, Hornaday went into fuel conservation mode after pitting for the final time on lap 75. Then as the dominant trucks made their final stops he found himself out front during the final 16 laps.
Their second win of the season wasn’t unexpected for the team, but how they earned it was. Just like in Texas when leader Johnny Sauter was black-flagged and Hornaday inherited the lead and the win. For Hornaday, those have been the only two times that things finally went right for the team.
In a season that’s has been hit or miss for the Kevin Harvick Inc team, they never gave up on the championship fight but have been busy climbing out of an early hole.
“Well, we go back to where we lost 25 points for the gear [following Charlotte] and me having brain fade about four races and wrecking trucks, puts us where we’re at,” said Hornaday.
In the early part of July, Hornaday finishes 17th or worse in three straight races, knocking him to ninth in points where he had been entering Atlanta. Since then the team has finished no worse than 24th in the last five races with four top nine finishes, including Friday’s win.
“Once I can put my head back on straight, get the trucks driving little bit better we’ll be fine. This right here is a boost,” said Hornaday.
Now sitting fifth in points, only 48 markers behind leader James Buescher, the four-time series champion could become a player. The veteran who was counted out early is working toward becoming the favorite through better the truck and himself.
This week he says he’s looking at putting a new seat in the truck. Right now he’s using a carbon fiber one but he’s looking to use something different heading forward.
“Maybe I can feel these trucks better these next couple of races, something I’m going to try differently for myself,” Hornaday said and in turn, “hopefully that will keep the front of the truck from bouncing.”
