By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star
Now that his boss, Kevin Harvick, is taking a break from the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series, defending champion Ron Hornaday Jr. is ready to start winning some races.
Hornaday, driving for Kevin Harvick Inc., last year enjoyed one of the best seasons in the 15-year history of the trucks series, winning his record fourth series title. He also won a NASCAR record, five straight races at one stretch and finished the season with 45 career wins, most in trucks history.
But Harvick, a Sprint Cup regular, competed in the first four trucks races of the season, winning two, while Kyle Busch, another Cup regular, won once. They’ll be racing in the Cup race at Richmond on Saturday night and are not entered in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway.
“Because Kevin and Kyle can’t run the whole thing, you don’t worry about them,” Hornaday said. “You worry about putting yourself in position to win the race. With Kevin and Kyle not being there, you capitalize on that.”
Despite not winning one of the first four races, Hornaday finds himself in good position to make a run at a fifth championship. He’s coming off a second place at Martinsville and a third at Nashville and sits sixth in the standings, 178 points behind the leader, Timothy Peters.
A year ago after four races, Hornaday was in third place, 71 points out of the lead, and in his 2007 championship season, he was fourth, 144 points behind.
“We had a couple of DNFs last year and came back to win the championship,” said Hornaday, who at 51 became the oldest NASCAR national series champion. “We just gave everybody a head start. It’s a matter of doing what we need to do.
“We have all brand-new trucks. Kevin won the last two races in new trucks, and those are my vehicles now, and they’re building me another new one. With the equipment Kevin and DeLana (Harvick) have given me, it’s making my job a lot of fun to go out there to race, knowing you’re the guy to beat when you unload.”
Hornaday is adjusting to a new crew chief in former racing rival Doug George, who came over from Joe Gibbs Racing. George has sensed no complacency in the four-time champion.
“His will to win is still there,” George said. “A lot of people are there just to be there. Ron’s purpose when he steps in is to win; that’s his motivation. He knows he drives for a good team, and he knows the equipment is good, so anything is possible.”
That’s why Hornaday has no plans on retiring any time soon.
“My wife and I made ourselves a pinky promise,” he said. “When I go out there and start riding around for a paycheck, it’s time to quit. As long as I have an opportunity to win, and Kevin and DeLana give me equipment to win with, and the sponsors keep coming, we’re going to keep racing.”
Hornaday won the pole last year at Kansas but finished fourth, continuing a pattern at Kansas Speedway where no trucks champion has repeated.
“That’s one of the tracks we had to cross off our little map that we hadn’t won,” Hornaday said of winning in 2008. “It was a big accomplishment to win there. We were terrible, but when a yellow came out, we made the right adjustment, and came from the back to the front. We know what it takes to win there.”
So what other tracks are left on the list?
“Talladega … Martinsville …” he said, “tracks I run good at, but I can’t get a break. But we’ll keep trying.”
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