Friday night's Chevy Silverado HD 250 season opener was a wild ride full of lead changes and three wide racing.

Ron Hornaday started in the 16th position, near his Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) teammate Cale Gale. Hornaday was quickly moving forward when on lap three Mike Wallace hit the wall heading into Turn 1, bringing out the first caution of the race. Hornaday restarted the race in 17th and received a little drafting help from Derrike Cope.

On lap 13, there was quite a bit of confusion when after the caution came out, NASCAR had to freeze the field and put the trucks back in order due to a problem with the scoring lights. Prompting Rick Ren to tell his driver, "when you write your biography, talk about this -- because I have never seen anything like this before." Hornaday re-started in 16th after taking fuel and four tires.

By lap 18, Hornaday had moved his No. 33 AES HR Solutions Chevrolet back into the top-10 with his teammate on his bumper, eventually making their way to the sixth and eighth positions, respectively.

When the next caution waved on lap 21, Hornaday came in and took four tires and fuel. He restarted the race in the 15th position. He went to the low line and began making up ground on the leaders. He continued to move forward and run with the lead pack for most of the race.

Shortly after the restart Hornaday had a line of trucks behind him and was quickly moving forward when it became three wide, and Hornaday was left without drafting help.

The caution came out again on lap 61, when Terry Cook's truck smashed into the wall and turned into a fiery blaze, sending Hornaday through the grass to avoid the wreck. Hornaday told his crew chief, "I need a tear off and clean the front end, I've gone through the grass."

Hornaday restarted seventh and quickly made his way up to third battling hard with Sprague for second. It quickly went to three wide racing and as with most of the race Hornaday ended up without help and dropped back to seventh again.

Caution came out on lap 88 after a large wreck on the frontstretch, Hornaday went to pit road for four tires, fuel and air pressure adjustments.

With only six laps to go Hornaday was still muscling his way to the front, he would finish the race in the 7th position, right behind pole sitter Jack Sprague who outran Johnny Benson and Travis Kvapil at the start/finish line for the win.

Hornaday's seventh place finish made him the highest finishing Chevrolet of the night.

Ron Hornaday's thoughts on Daytona International Speedway and the Chevy

Silverado 250:
"Daytona went well," said Ron Hornaday. "I had good communication with Rick (Ren) and the team. And we left with the truck in one piece. It was the best start we have had at KHI going into the points deal."

"I am happy with my overall finish. We just didn't have the help we needed to run the way I wanted to out there. It wasn't the way I wanted to finish, but it was a solid top-10 finish and a good way to head to California."

Crew Chief Rick Ren on Daytona International Speedway and the Chevy

Silverado 250:
"Daytona was a very good first race for us," said Ren. "The adjustments post testing from the data acquired were very good. The communication between the whole team was also very good. Pit stops were decent and the whole team effort (for the whole week) was great. All in all a top-10 finish at Daytona without a scratch is a pretty good week."

Next Up For The No. 33:
Next up for the No. 33 AES HR Solutions team will be the San Bernardino County 200 at the California Speedway on February 23, 2007, where Ron Hornaday will drive a NEW untested truck. With what crew chief Rick Ren learned at pre-season testing at Homestead, he is confident that the No. 33 team is in great shape heading to Fontana, Calif.