The No. 33 AES HR Solutions Chevy at California Speedway. (VPS Motorimages Photo)

Ron Hornaday finished second Friday night in the No. 33 AES HR Solutions Chevrolet Silverado after a chaotic restart. Hornaday known as the master of restarts, took off fast as usual, while Mark Martin, who was in first, was unable to get up to speed as quickly. Hornaday, unable to stop, tapped the rear bumper of Martin's No. 21 truck sending him spinning into the grass.

As Hornaday lost momentum, Mike Skinner was able to shoot past him into the lead before the caution came out. "I feel sorry for Mark, but he just kept getting slower and slower and slower and you can only hit the brakes so much in that situation," commented Hornaday after the race. "We were all stacking up behind him. Mark and I are the only ones who really know what happened and I know he tried to get the second-place truck to get out of the gas. If that had happened, then maybe I'd be the guy who wound up spun out. But I did hit him and Mark is such a clean competitor I hated to see it happen."

Key Moments: Ron Hornaday started the race from the sixth position, quickly moving to the high side, but without help was unable to move out front. Almost immediately Mike Skinner, Carl Edwards and Hornaday pulled away from the pack and had a race of their own. By lap nine Hornaday had made his way into the second position, telling crew chief Rick Ren, "it's a little free off, but leave it alone for right now."

The AES Chevrolet team gave him fast pit stops, allowing Hornaday to remain in the top-five for the majority of the race. On lap 38 he radioed to Ren that the truck was free in the middle and off. Ren reassured his driver saying, "as soon as you start burning fuel, it should start coming around." Hornaday consistently took four tires and fuel during pit stops while under caution throughout the race.

When the caution flew on lap 70, Hornaday stayed out and was able to restart from the fourth position and by lap 75 had taken over third from Todd Bodine. On lap 91, Skinner, Martin and Hornaday were racing hard for the lead. Skinner pulled inside Martin but lost grip and Hornaday was able to move into second and was heading for first when caution came out for the fifth time. With two laps remaining on the restart, Skinner took off in clean air and Hornaday was unable to get around him, ending a great run in second place.

This second place finish for Hornaday is his best finish to date at the 2.0-mile California track. Jack Sprague finished third followed by pole-winner Carl Edwards and Ted Musgrave rounding out the top-five.

Ron Hornaday Quotes:
"Our AES HR Solutions Chevrolet ran good all night. I have to thank Rick Ren and the guys for working their guts out. To come out of here with a top-five, with all of these guys in competition here, it tells you how much homework Chevrolet has done over the winter time and what Kevin and DeLana (Harvick) have done with the second truck to help our program for the AES Chevrolet."

"It was a great run until the last three laps or so when Mark (Martin) went spinning into the grass. We were really good off the trailer. We started changing a few things and then luckily went back to where we started. Rick Ren, Danny and all the guys on our AES Chevrolet Silverado did a great job all night long. To run all night up front, it says a lot for our team and what they have overcome since last year."

"Awesome, that's what we needed. Rick Ren and all the guys on the No. 33 have worked very hard. We had a great start to the season, that's what we had to do."

Next up for the No. 33 AES HR Solutions Chevrolet Silverado team: Ron Hornaday and his team will have a few weekends off before heading to the Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway March 16, 2007. Hornaday is looking to beat his 2006, 20th place finish in Atlanta (Ga.); he has a previous win at Atlanta in 2005.