Heading into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega this week (Oct. 6, 3:30 p.m. ET on SPEED), Ron Hornaday Jr. is just three points behind leader Mike Skinner in the closest NCTS battle in series history. Below are quotes from Hornaday from his appearance on SPEED'S Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain:

Despain: "How far back do you and car owner (Kevin) Harvick go? He's a good bit younger than you, but you both come from the same part of California...  the old Winston West and Southwest Tour Series?"

Hornaday: "Well, at Bakersfield, he was called "The Kid" and I raced up there for about five or six years...  and all through the years, they kept calling him "The Kid"...  I was like when is this kid going to grow up...  when's he gonna turn 20 or something. Kevin and I go way back...  probably the '80s, right before I started racing on the Southwest Tour. Bakersfield, just a little half-mile track we used to run on...  Kevin and his dad were up there racing a lot and I got to meet him up there."

Despain: "Later on, when you moved (to North Carolina), you had a house on Lake Norman and you put (Harvick) and Jimmie Johnson up...  couple of unknown kids trying to make their way into the big time, so here's the question: Were you just being a nice guy, or did you figure out back then that somewhere down the line, these kids were going to be big stars and these are the kind of guys you'd like to have owe you one?"

Hornaday: "With Kevin, he's always had talent and I had seen that ever since we'd been racing together. To get a chance to do what he's done...  he was signed with somebody else, and I got a chance to talk with (Richard Childress)...  Richard wanted me to get in touch with Kevin and when Kevin came down, instead of renting a house...  instead of wasting his money, I told him he should just stay in our house until he finds something to buy. It worked out that way...  he bought a house around the corner and ended up selling that and now he has a race shop and a nice beautiful home he just built. It always works out for the best."

"With Jimmie, I met him at a Chevrolet function and he told me he was coming out and I invited him to stay at the house to see if he likes it...  he ended up staying three to six months. The door's always open...  but I better talk to my wife about that, because every time I say that, somebody always ends up at the house."

Despain: "Which Harvick calls the shots over there? On paper, it's Kevin's wife, DeLana, who owns the truck. So, who makes the decisions? Who do you really work for?"

Hornaday: "They are both hands-on, but DeLana is actually the boss. I talk to her more than I talk to Kevin. Kevin just tells us we're doing a great job and if we have a problem, he says he's gonna fix it...  and he's done that...  it's unbelievable what we've done in such a short time with what Kevin and DeLana started up here. Both of them are my boss...  how's that?"

Despain: "Let me ask you about the Truck Series. You have an interesting lineup there. You have lots of salty old veterans. You've got lots of kids that are trying to get experience and make it to the big time. You've got more and more people coming in from other series looking for seat time. Looking at it from your perspective from a guy that was there when it started, has the Truck Series lived up to its potential and developed like you though that it would or should?"

Hornaday: "I really think they have passed it...  in the first five years, I think they passed their 10-year plan. When Dale Earnhardt called me in '94 and said 'Do you want to drive my truck?'...  I said 'What are you talking about; I don't even know what a truck is.'...  but it didn't take too much convincing, because I was on a plane on Tuesday morning out to North Carolina to see him. (The series had) excelled more than I ever believed...  when they said they were going to Daytona, I thought they were nuts...  the following year, I got to drive Ricky Hendrick's truck...  after the first five laps, I went to NASCAR and really praised them for what they had done with the trucks to make them so stable. The venues, the trucks and the stuff we're doing has just excelled faster than I ever thought it would."

SPEED, now in more than 77 million homes in North America, is the exclusive home of the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge, Gatorade Duels at Daytona, NASCAR Nextel Pit Crew Challenge and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The only network delivering live, at-track programming all season long, SPEED offers the definitive pre- and post-race NASCAR Nextel Cup Series programs - NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane, as well as other popular NASCAR programs including Trackside Live, Tradin' Paint, NASCAR Performance, NASCAR Live!, Inside Nextel Cup and Go or Go Home.