Hornaday Rocks The House Old School
07-19-2009 1:37 pm

Ron Hornaday Jr. showed the world why he's Ron Hornaday Jr. during Saturday night's Built Ford Tough 225 Presented by the Greater Cincinnati Ford Dealers at Kentucky Speedway.

The cagy veteran and three-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series didn't have the fastest truck in the field, but he was the best when the race was on the line. Hornaday had his No. 33 Longhorn Chevrolet Silverado in third place behind the No. 15 Red Top Auto Auction Toyota Tundra of Aric Almirola and the No. 81 One-Eighty Toyota of Tayler Malsam when the green flag flew on Lap 133 of the 150-lap race.

Giving new proof to the old saw about old age and treachery overcoming youth and skill every time, Hornaday, 51, blew by youngsters Almirola and Malsam on the first lap of green and from there was never headed as he won his third consecutive Truck Series race by 0.135 second over Mike Skinner, another member of the over-50 set.

In the process Hornaday became the first repeat Kentucky NCWTS winner by taking the closest series finish in track history. In scoring his fourth victory, seventh top-five and 10th top-10 finish of the season, Hornaday extended his points lead — for now — to 96 over Matt Crafton and 154 over Skinner.

Afterwards, Hornaday insisted that it wasn't as easy as it looked, that new and crew chief Rick Ren had to pull out all the stops to get the Kevin Harvick Inc. truck headed in the right direction, setup-wise.

"I hate to say it, but we didn't have the truck to win," said Hornaday, who fought a loose condition for much of the race. "It's just the restarts worked out in our favor and Rick did a great job. On our last stop, we put fuel in, and then the yellow came out. We put four tires on and made some hellacious adjustments, that's a big word for me, but they were unbelievable."

It paid off in a big way.

"We finally got the truck right," said Hornaday. "It took all day yesterday and all day today, but we got the truck right. It's unbelievable that my guys never say die and keep working hard. I would have been really happy to come out of here with a top 5, but it's pretty exciting (winning) three in a row," he said.

Skinner's No. 5 Exide Batteries Toyota gave Hornaday plenty of fight at the end, pressuring him hard until the drop of the checkered flag.

"Well, if I drove it in (to the corners) any harder, I kept bottoming it out, and that's what happened the last lap," said Hornaday. "That's when Mike made such a good run on me. One more lap and I don't know if he would have caught me, but it would have been a heck of a race."

Skinner earned his fifth top-five and ninth top-10 finish of the season. He has one victory, three top-five and four top-10 finishes in seven Kentucky Speedway NCWTS starts.

"I could've hit him, and I probably owe him one, but I didn't take the low road," said Skinner. "I really thought I had him and thought I could pass him without running into him. Due to problems with other guys and keeping the fenders on the truck tonight, we were able to finish second. Another lap and we might have had a first-place truck."

Matt Crafton claimed third-place in the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet, Timothy Peters was fourth in the No. 17 Strutmasters Toyota and Aric Almirola took fifth in the No. 15 Red Top Auto Auction Toyota.

But despite coming into the race as the series points leader and widening that lead with his victory, Hornaday might actually lose the points lead prior to the next race Friday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.

NASCAR seized the rear-end housing of the No. 33 during inspection and ruled that it was improperly offset. NASCAR likely will announce a points penalty on Monday or Tuesday, which would reduce or even wipe out Hornaday's points lead entirely.