NEWTON, Iowa (September 6, 2009)—- With fall in the air, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rolled into Iowa Speedway for the series inaugural event at the speedway. With NASCAR’s no-testing policy, teams were given five opportunities to practice on the 0.875-mile speedway before the 200-lap event Saturday night. After two long days of struggling with the set up of the truck, the 2007 Truck Series championship team proved once again that they are on a mission for the 2009 Truck Series title.
“The guys on this Longhorn Silverado did a great job,” Hornaday said. “We didn’t have the truck to beat, (Mike) Skinner did. We just fought loose-in, tight-off all night. Actually, we really struggled the last two days, but this is why this KHI team is championship caliber. It was a lot of fun here, we didn’t give up and with eight races to go, we still have our lead. (Matt) Crafton was good and I am not sure how we gained five points on him, but we’ll take it. I just want to thank Longhorn, Copart, VFW, Rheem and everybody who helps us on this program.”
Hornaday began the inaugural Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway from the 15th starting position. The team had the truck too loose during qualifying and made changes to tighten the truck up for the race. At the start of the race, Hornaday quickly began to move up through the field. Two quick cautions at laps one and five bunched the field up on the Iowa short track. Hornaday was able to take advantage of the close racing conditions, and by lap 15 had moved into the 10th position. While Hornaday continued to gain spots, pole sitter Mike Skinner dominated, pulling out to a two-second lead over second place Matt Crafton. By lap 45, Hornaday managed to move into the top five.
The third caution of the race waved at lap 57. Hornaday radioed crew chief Rick Ren that the truck had gone to the tight side as he tried to roll through the center of the corner. At lap 59, Ren brought the No. 33 truck to pit road for four tires and an air-pressure adjustment. The following lap Hornaday came back to pit road for fuel and a wedge adjustment. Hornaday restarted from the fourth position. Trying to gain track position, Hornaday began to beat and bang with the No. 13 of Johnny Sauter and the No. 88 of Matt Crafton. After a few laps, Hornaday was able to persevere and pull away. He then began to work on the No. 6 of Colin Braun for third.
At lap 104, Hornaday moved into the second position. He radioed spotter Rick Carelli to ask what line Skinner was running to try and discern a plan to catch the dominate No. 5 truck for the lead. A caution at lap 109 put the No. 33 team in a tough position. Ren debated for several laps whether or not to put tires on the Longhorn truck. However, he finally made the decision to bring the No. 33 down pit road at lap 112 for four tires and another air-pressure adjustment to help Hornaday with a tight-handling truck. The following lap, Hornaday came back down pit road for fuel. The team was forced to spend a few extra seconds on pit road to pack the fuel cell in order to make it to the end of the race. Hornaday restarted from the fifth position.
As the laps wore down, Hornaday battled back to try and catch Skinner for the lead. However, over the course of three laps the No. 33 truck made a 180-degree swing going from tight to loose then back to tight. Hornaday did the best he could with an ill-handling truck and was able to take the checkers in the fourth position. Skinner was the class of the field all evening leading 180 of the 200 laps on his way to victory lane. Aric Almirola, Braun, Hornaday, and Sauter rounded out the top five. Hornaday was able to gain five points on Crafton, increasing his point lead to 225 markers.
STATS RECAP
Race Info
September 5, 2009
Iowa Speedway
Race: 17 of 25
Driver: Ron Hornaday
Started: 15th
Finished: 4th
Truck Series Point Standings: 1st (+225)
Race length: 200 Laps/ 175 Miles
Track layout: 0.875-mile
Shape: Tri-oval
Number of Race Cautions: 7 for 33 laps
First Practice: Third (23.647 seconds; 133.209 mph)
Second Practice: Seventh (23.842 seconds; 132.120 mph)
Third Practice: First (23.519 seconds, 133.934 mph)
Fourth Practice: Fifth (23.451 seconds, 134.323 mph)
Final Practice: Eighteenth (23.915 seconds, 131.716 mph)
Qualifying: Fifteenth (23.435 seconds, 134.414)
Next on the Schedule for the No. 33:
Date: September 12, 2009
Track: Gateway International Raceway
Event Name: Copart 200
Driver: Ron Hornaday
Sponsor: Longhorn
Broadcast Time: SPEED 2:00 p.m., EST MRN 2:00 p.m., EST