It was a challenging 200-lap race for Ron Hornaday at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Hornaday and his team fought for their 15th top-10 finish of the season in the No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet. With nine races left in the 2007 NASCAR Truck Series season, Hornaday continues to hold the second position in the championship point standings, 92 markers behind Mike Skinner.

The O'Reilly 200 was the first NASCAR race to be held at the newly repaved .533-mile oval in Bristol, Tennessee. The Camping World team unloaded the hauler, and immediately went to work Tuesday afternoon for an open test session at a track that now bears very few similarities to what Hornaday recollects from previous years. For crew chief Rick Ren, this meant having to throw out his years of copious notes and start from scratch.

Ren and the team spent all of the open test session on Tuesday and most of the subsequent two practice sessions Wednesday striving to find what setup would work best for Hornaday during the race. The No. 33 Camping World truck was solid in both practice sessions, posting the ninth quickest time of 16.087 seconds (119.276 mph) during the first practice session, and then a final time of 16.036 seconds (119.656 mph), which put the No. 33 team 10th during the final practice.

No sooner than the 200-lap event got started, the caution flag began to wave. When the field went back to green on lap six, Hornaday began making his way to the front. Hornaday was in the 12th position when he told his crew that he was too loose and would need some help to make the truck better in turns one and two.

On lap 35, the caution flag flew once again and Hornaday headed to pit road while in the 10th position for a scheduled pit stop for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. The Camping World crew had a tough time removing the lug nuts from the front tires, causing an unusually long pit stop for Hornaday, which sent him out on the track in the 22nd position. However, pit strategies started to unfold early in the 200-lap event as several trucks opted to stay out, some took fuel and others took two tires.

By lap 87, Hornaday had fought his way through traffic and up to the 13th position, but was still battling a loose handling truck. He radioed his team saying, "it's swinging loose everywhere, but I don't want to stop again." Ren calmly stated to his driver, "I understand that, but we aren't going to get to the front like this."

On lap 116, while under caution, Hornaday headed back to pit road for four tires and fuel, along with another track bar adjustment.

Even after the adjustments, Hornaday still struggled with an ill-handling truck. On lap 140, he cracked the top 10, by passing KHI teammate Cale Gale for the position. On lap 151 he successfully passed Matt Crafton for ninth place.

On lap 160, while under caution for debris on the track, Hornaday told his team that he was still having a difficult time with his Chevrolet Silverado, but that with the adjustments he was at least able to drive the truck harder into the corners. The field restarted on lap 167, and by the end of the next lap, Hornaday had moved up to the eighth spot.

Hornaday continued to make his way toward the front, and was in the sixth position when the final caution of the night occurred. Hornaday drove the No. 33 truck as hard as he could during the final five laps of the race and held onto the sixth position, bringing home another solid top-10 finish for the Camping World team.

Ron Hornaday Quote:
"We struggled tonight in our Camping World Chevrolet. We started out loose and Rick Ren (crew chief) and the guys did all they could with the adjustments. We just couldn't get away from the loose handling conditions. We were able to earn another top-10 finish, which is what we needed to do. I'm not sure where we finished in points, but I can't complain about a sixth-place finish at Bristol. Now we need to go home and get ready for Gateway."

Rick Ren Quote:
"I think the powers that be at Bristol accomplished what they set out to do when they repaved the race track. Now you can pass high or low, there is just more room to race. The race comes down to tires now instead of track position. It's also a better race for the fans."