DOVER, Del. (May 31, 2009)—- Ron Hornaday and the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) team qualified on the pole for the AAA Insurance 200 on Friday. Heavy rains minutes before the race was scheduled to begin postponed the race until after the Nationwide Series race concluded Saturday.
Under sunny skies, Hornaday took to the track looking for another win at the Monster Mile. Hornaday led the first twelve laps of the race before Kyle Busch caught the
No. 33. Settling into second, Hornaday began to find a rhythm. On lap 34, the No. 33 blew a right-front tire going into turn one and crashed hard into the outside wall. Because of the serious damage, Hornaday would go 157 laps down. The No. 33 team rebuilt the right-front suspension on the VFW Chevrolet Silverado in order to make a few more laps and gain valuable championship points. Hornaday would finish the event in the 26th position.
“That was a major hit,” said Hornaday. “We had a really good VFW Chevrolet Silverado. I hate this happened so early in the race. We really had a truck that was capable of contending for the win. I had no warning the tire was going to go. Things like this happen in racing, but I’m definitely going to have a major headache tomorrow! I just want to thank this team for working so hard to give me good trucks week in and week out. They really do not get enough credit for how hard they work. We will go to Texas next week and look for a good run there.”
Tire issues were the story of the entire event. With fifteen laps remaining, leader Kyle Busch and second-place Colin Braun simultaneously blew right-front tires. Championship contender Todd Bodine also experienced tire issues throughout the race, going three laps down to the leaders. After the 10th caution of the race, first-time Camping World Truck Series winner Brian Scott would go to victory lane followed by Dennis Setzer, David Starr, Jason White and Johnny Sauter rounding out the top five.
STATS RECAP
Race Info
May 30, 2009
Dover (Del.) International Speedway
Race: 7 of 25
Driver: Ron Hornaday
Started: 1st
Finished: 26th
Truck Series Point Standings: 1st (-)
Next on the Schedule for the No. 33:
Date: June 5th, 2009
Track: Texas Motor Speedway
Event Name: WinStar World Casino 400
Driver: Ron Hornaday
Broadcast Time: SPEED 8:30 p.m., EST; MRN 8:30 p.m., EST
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