FT. WORTH, Texas (June 5, 2010)—- Ron Hornaday and the No. 33 team recorded their fifth top-10 finish of 2010 Friday night in the WinStar World Casino 400K at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). Hornaday overcame a pit-road penalty to lead 32 laps of the 167-lap event. A right-rear tire failure during the green-white-checkered finish spoiled the No. 33 team’s chance for their first win of the 2010 season. Hornaday was able to bring the Longhorn Chevrolet home with a ninth-place finish.
“I really thought we had a shot at it on that last restart,” said Hornaday after the race. ”I hate that we lost the tire at the end. We must have run over something because we didn’t have any contact with another truck. We had a really good Longhorn Chevrolet tonight. It just wasn’t our night.”
Hornaday started the WinStar World Casino 400K from the seventh position. By lap two Hornaday radioed the team that the truck was really loose and dropped to the 10th position on lap five.
The first caution waved on lap 18 with Hornaday in the 10th position. The No. 33 team brought Hornaday down pit road for four tires, fuel, an air-pressure adjustment and to remove tape from the grill. The race restarted on lap 23 and three laps later Hornaday had moved from ninth to sixth. By lap 31, Hornaday had broken into the top five and by lap 42, Hornaday caught pole sitter Austin Dillion and Ricky Carmichael. Making quick work of the two rookies Hornaday passed them both on the same lap to move into third. Aric Almirola who was running in the second position experienced mechanical trouble and shot down pit road on lap 49, moving Hornaday into the second position.
The No. 33 team made plans to pit under green on lap 75 while leader Todd Bodine peeled off the track to pit road on lap 74. Gaining five bonus points for leading a lap, crew chief Doug George called Hornaday just as the caution the caution waved on lap 75 leaving Hornaday as one of only four trucks on the lead lap.
Under the yellow, Hornaday brought the No. 33 truck down pit road to the attention of the crew for four tires and fuel. As the stop ended, the jack dropped and Hornaday left his pit stall with the gas can still engaged. This resulted in a stop and go penalty for removing equipment from the pit box, and Hornaday was placed at the tail end of the longest line for the restart on lap 81. Hornaday quickly began to work his way through lapped traffic as he raced three wide in an effort to get back to the front.
Hornaday had worked his way back into the sixth position as the caution waved on lap 85. The No. 33 team decided to preserve their track position opting not come to pit road. Hornaday restarted in sixth on lap 91 and a lap later he was racing Bodine for the lead. Hornaday was finally able to get around Bodine on lap 102 to reassume the top spot. The caution waved again on lap 129 only a few laps before the No. 33 truck had scheduled their final pit stop of the night. Hornaday brought the No. 33 truck down pit road as the leader for four tires and fuel. The No. 33 team lost the battle off pit road to Bodine, placing Hornaday second for the restart on lap 134.
Hornaday struggled to catch third gear on the restart and fell back to third, battling Timothy Peters for second as Bodine pulled out to a sizable lead. Hornaday caught a break as the caution waved on lap 154, tightening the field once again. With only seven laps remaining, the No. 33 truck restarted the race from the third position in the bottom groove, where they had been dominant all night. A great restart by Hornaday looked as though he was going to battle Bodine for the win when the final caution of the night flew on lap 163, setting the field up for a green-white-checkered finish.
On the final restart Hornaday charged the outside battling Bodine for the win, while fending off Johnny Sauter for second. Going into the final lap, Hornaday radioed to the crew “I have a tire down” as the No. 33 truck jumped sideways down the back straight-a-way. As the right-rear tire disintegrated on the No. 33 truck, Hornaday brought the wounded vehicle home crossing the finish line as the last truck on the lead lap in the ninth position.
Bodine won his sixth race at Texas Motor Speedway followed by Johnny Sauter, pole sitter Austin Dillion, Mike Skinner and Hornaday’s KHI teammate Ken Schrader who scored his career-best Texas Motor Speedway finish.
Hornaday remains fourth in the Truck Series point standings, 155 markers out of first. The Truck Series returns to action next week at Michigan International Speedway.
STATS RECAP
Race Info
June 4, 2010
Texas Motor Speedway
Race: 8 of 25
Driver: Ron Hornaday
Started: 7th
Finished: 9th
Truck Series Point Standings: 4th (-155 points out of first)
Next on the Schedule for the No. 33:
Date: June 12, 2010
Track: Michigan International Speedway
Event Name: The VFW 200
Driver: Ron Hornaday
Broadcast Time: SPEED 1:30 p.m., EST MRN 1:30 p.m., EST