Ron Hornaday Jr.: The Four-Time Truck Series Champion From Palmdale

Ron Hornaday Jr. is a former NASCAR driver from Palmdale, California, best known for four NASCAR Truck Series championships. He raced for Dale Earnhardt's team in the early Super Truck years, later drove for Kevin Harvick and Richard Childress, and made a short return to the Cup Series in 2015. He now builds dirt modified chassis.

Where did Hornaday's racing career begin?

Hornaday was born on 20 June 1958 in Palmdale, California, and began in go-karts and motorcycles before racing stock cars at Saugus Speedway. He won the Southwest Series title in 1992 and repeated the next year, a feat that stood alone until Jim Pettit took two consecutive crowns in 2004 and 2005.

His Winston Cup debut came at the 1992 Save Mart 300K, where he started 17th and ended up 32nd in the No. 92 Chevrolet owned by Bob Fisher. He returned to Phoenix International Raceway the following year, finishing 25th and then 22nd, the second of those in a No. 76 Spears Motorsports car.

Four Truck Series titles, a Super Truck start under Dale Earnhardt, and a late Cup chapter that ended in 2015.

How did the Super Truck years build his reputation?

In 1995 Hornaday drove the No. 16 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. in the new Super Truck Series. He won six races and four poles in his first season and finished third in points. A year later he won four races and the title, with NAPA Auto Parts sponsoring the car.

Seven wins in 1997 left him fifth in points, although two of those victories came from leading every lap. He reclaimed the title in 1998 with six wins and sixteen top-fives in 27 races. That season he marked a Memphis 200 win by spinning the rear tires, a move that was rare at the time and angered team owner Dale Earnhardt over the risk to the powertrain.

What did his 1998 Busch and Cup starts look like?

In 1998 Hornaday made four Busch Series starts for ST Motorsports, with an eighth at Pikes Peak International Raceway as his best finish. He also made his Winston Cup car debut for Tim Beverly at Sonoma, where he finished 14th in the No. 17 NAPA Chevy. Those starts ran alongside his main Truck campaign.

At Watkins Glen, in the Parts America 150, he led all but twelve laps, but a late penalty for jumping the restart took the win away. After the race he celebrated in victory lane, but officials confirmed that he had finished fourth.

Why was his 1999 win at Evergreen Speedway memorable?

In 1999 Hornaday won the 100th race in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington. Only four drivers had entered every truck race since the series began, and Hornaday was one of them. The win came with a $100,000 bonus. He finished seventh in the championship standings that year.

Late in 1999 he was asked to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 3 NAPA Chevrolet for the DEI Busch programme. He had finished the year in an up-and-down fashion, and the move set up his full-time Busch Series career for 2000.

What were his full-time Busch Series years like?

Hornaday made the Busch Series his full-time home in 2000, winning at Nazareth Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park. He finished fifth in points and was second in Rookie of the Year voting, behind Kevin Harvick. He was also voted Most Popular Driver that season, a sign of how fans had taken to him.

Earnhardt then elevated the operation to the Cup Series for 2001, with Michael Waltrip taking the seat, so Hornaday was released. He signed with A. J. Foyt Racing for the No. 14 Conseco Pontiac Grand Prix, posting a 9th at Las Vegas and finishing 38th in points. Later that year he returned to the Busch Series part-time with the Curb Agajanian group, where he recorded three top-tens.

At Carroll Racing in 2002 he collected eight top-tens and a pole, and he also won a Truck race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with Xpress Motorsports. In 2003 he joined Richard Childress Racing's No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet, won at Nazareth, and finished third in points while completing all 34 races.

How did he return to the Truck Series as a champion?

After Childress, Hornaday returned to the Truck Series full-time in 2005 with Kevin Harvick Inc., the team of a long-time friend. He won at Atlanta that year and finished fifth in points. In 2007 Camping World sponsorship helped him win at two tracks and capture a third title, turning a 29-point gap to Mike Skinner into the championship.

The 2009 season was the peak. On 20 June, his 51st birthday, he took the Copart 200 at the Milwaukee Mile, and on 24 July he became the first Camping World Truck driver to claim four consecutive victories. On 1 August he won at Nashville Superspeedway, a fifth straight win that tied Richard Petty and Bobby Allison.

He clinched his fourth title on 13 November 2009, before the final race. Only a handful of drivers have won four or more titles across NASCAR's three national series, and Hornaday now sits alongside Gordon, Petty, Earnhardt and Johnson in that small group.

How did the 2010 and 2011 seasons go?

In late 2010 Stewart-Haas Racing hired Hornaday as standby driver for the final three Cup races, in case Ryan Newman had to leave the track. Newman's child arrived three days before the season finale, so the standby role was not needed in the way the team had feared.

In 2011 Hornaday won four races but his consistency slipped late in the season. Going into the penultimate race at Texas he was second in points, 15 behind Austin Dillon. At Texas, Kyle Busch collided with him and pushed him into the wall, which mathematically eliminated him from the title. Busch was suspended from that weekend's races.

Hornaday said afterwards that he had planned to settle matters with Busch after the race, but held back. A phone call a few days later only sharpened the feud.

What were his final years in the Truck Series?

Hornaday moved to Joe Denette Motorsports for 2012, driving the No. 9 Anderson's Maple Syrup Chevrolet. The 2013 season started well with several top-ten finishes, but at Rockingham he intentionally wrecked rookie Bubba Wallace under caution. NASCAR fined him $25,000, cut 25 points and placed him on probation until June 12.

That penalty moved him from fourth to fifteenth in the standings, and he was released from the No. 9 truck before the final race. In 2014 he drove for Turner Scott Motorsports in the No. 30, but he was released on 2 September with the team dissolving in a dispute. He had been sixth in points at that point and finished the season 14th.

What did his Cup return in 2015 involve?

His Cup return came with The Motorsports Group in 2015, driving the No. 30 Chevrolet, his first Cup start since 2003. He failed to make the Daytona 500 field after posting the slowest qualifying time, then qualified for a later race and finished 42nd after a broken rear gear.

The season did not last long. He failed to qualify at Martinsville after crashing during qualifying, and after another miss at Bristol the team and driver parted ways. Hornaday later said he would not race just for a paycheck, and he returned to dirt racing instead.

How has he been honoured?

Palmdale declared 8 April 2010 Ron Hornaday Jr. Day, and a roundabout at the Palmdale Auto Mall was named after him on the same date. On 24 May 2017 he was named to the class of 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame, making him the first from the Truck ranks to be honoured.

Hornaday today runs Team Hornaday Development, a program that develops young drivers, and Hornaday Race Cars, a chassis business. His father, Ron Hornaday Sr., won the Winston West title twice, and his son Ronnie also raced in NASCAR.

Key seasons at a glance