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TRUCKS: Hornaday Nears Fourth Title
Written by: Tom Jensen   
11/07/2009
Fort Worth, TX
 
Ever since Ron Hornaday went on his remarkable five-race winning streak that began in June, it was pretty much a given that the veteran would win his fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship this year.
Ron Hornaday, Jr. finished third behind race winner Kyle Busch and Matt Crafton in the Winstar World Casino 350 at Texas Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos

Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, the 51-year-old California native came one step closer to making that a reality. Hornaday finished third in his Kevin Harvick Inc. owner Chevrolet Silverado behind winner Kyle Busch and Matt Crafton in the Winstar World Casino 350, race No. 23 of 25 on the 2009 Truck Series schedule.

Hornaday left Texas with a lead of 197 points over Crafton — more than one full race. If Hornaday simply finishes ahead of Crafton next Friday in Phoenix, he will clinch his fourth championship there. If Crafton wins both of the final two races of the season and leads the most laps in each, Hornaday will still win the title if he averages a finish of 22nd or better in Phoenix and Homestead. In other words, it’s all over but the shouting.

And speaking of shouting, Hornaday was none too pleased with race-winner Busch for knocking him out of the way twice on the backstretch, the last time coming on Lap 98, when Busch took a lead he would not surrender.

“It was a great run for the VFW Chevrolet. It is not the way we wanted to finish,” said Hornaday. “Kyle lifted me up pretty good down the back straightaway. The bumper is bent in pretty good. It is hard to race somebody that doesn’t make a living at it and doesn’t care about points. It is tough. That made my tires mad in (turns) 3 and 4. I don’t think I could hold Crafton off, he had a very good truck tonight. We will take what we can get and go on to the next two.”

And needless to say, Hornaday was not happy with Busch, with whom he has tangled before. “Not once,
twice but three times, I was sideways down the back straightaway,” said Hornaday. “I felt like it was Talladega all over again. Got down in there and he just sucked me around so. Good save, but it is not the day we wanted. Top-three coming out of Texas is pretty good because we usually win or something happens here and we finally came out with a top-three so we will take this Chevrolet and move on to the next two (races).”

As for the series title, Hornaday insisted he isn’t thinking about that yet.

“It isn’t a championship, it is just a race right now,” he said. “We have two more to go and we are just going to race as hard as we can. Racing … we just need to win the next two.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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