LEBANON, Tenn. (July 23, 2011) — Ron Hornaday and the No. 33 Kroger/Tide Chevrolet Silverado team finished 17th after battling handling issues during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Friday night at Nashville Superspeedway. The Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) team started the 150-lap event in the fourth position and raced among the top 10 for the majority of the race before slipping outside of the top 10 with 25 laps to go.
Hornaday qualified fourth for the Lucas Deep Clean 200 and with the wave of the green flag, battled for position with the top three in the field. The first caution flag of the night came early in the race on lap five with a truck spinning turn two. With only a few green-flag laps under their belts, the No. 33 team elected not to come to pit road and Hornaday took the lap seven restart from the fifth position.
Back under green-flag conditions, Hornaday quickly picked up two spots and settled into the third position for the next 12 laps. On lap 19, the four-time Truck Series champion reported to crew chief Jeff Hensley that his KHI Chevrolet was starting to become tight as he raced around the 1.33-mile concrete track. Despite the tight-handling condition, the driver picked up another position, moving into the second spot by lap 33.
As the race approached the lap 50 mark, the field began to cycle through green-flag pit stops. On lap 57, Hensley brought Hornaday down pit road for the No. 33 Kroger/Tide crew to bolt on four tires, add fuel and make a chassis adjustment to help relieve the handling issues Hornaday was fighting.
Hornaday returned to the track and climbed back to the second position as the rest of the field cycled through their green-flag pit stops. As he made his way around the oval, he reported to his team that his Chevrolet was now too loose in the center of the turns. By lap 67, the driver slipped back to the fourth position.
Hornaday continued to battle the loose-handling condition of the truck as he maintained position among the top 10. On lap 81, the No. 33 Chevrolet ran in a pack with his two KHI teammates (the No.2 of Elliott Sadler and the No. 8 of Nelson Piquet Jr.) with Hornaday in the seventh position.
The No. 33 KHI machine was running in the eighth position when second caution flag of the night waved on lap 103 for debris on the track in turn three. As the field slowed, Hornaday reported that his truck was still too loose. Hensley called the driver down pit road for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment made on the prior stop hoping to tighten up the Kroger/Tide Chevrolet.
The field resumed green-flag racing on lap 106 with Hornaday in the eighth position. Just as quickly as the field went back to green, however, the caution flag waved again for fluid on the track. NASCAR returned the field to green on lap 113.
The No. 33 Chevrolet picked up two positions by lap 114, moving Hornaday into the sixth spot. The driver worked to hold position in the top 10 but reported back to the crew on lap 119 that his truck was still fighting the loose conditions and starting to get sideways as he drove into the corners.
The No. 33 Kroger/Tide Chevrolet was slowed as Hornaday worked to make his way through lapped traffic with less than 30 laps to go. As the end of the race approached, the driver started to lose track position, falling outside of the top 15. Hornaday fought to move forward in the field through the remaining laps but crossed the finish line in the 17th position.
The Truck Series heads to Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis on Friday, July 29 for the AAA Insurance 200. Watch the action live on SPEED at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Comments from driver Ron Hornaday:
“That was the wildest race of my life. I thought we may have had a tire going down so I backed off a little to make sure there wasn’t anything rubbing. Before I knew it the truck was so stiff I couldn’t turn into the corners. Something had to have broken on the right front. I really hate this for the No. 33 Kroger/Tide team. We have been working really hard to get this program back on track and we haven’t been able to catch a break.”
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