Hornaday seeks second chance at Nashville
NASCAR history gets another first on Saturday night when the Camping Truck Series will run at Nashville Superspeedway for the second time in the same season. The track picked up the second date for the 2010 truck season when owner Dover Motorsports announced last October that the Memphis property would be closing. The race will take place Saturday night.
The Nashville Superspeedway usually hosts NASCAR in the summertime, but did so in April as well when Kyle Busch won the truck event during his Sprint Cup off-week. Busch won’t be running in this Saturday’s race due to his Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series obligations at Watkins Glen.
As for the other competitors, series points leader Todd Bodine has a 149-point average per race. His lead in the standings was slightly cut into by Aric Almirola last Saturday when the trucks raced at Pocono for the first time in the series. Almirola finished in fourth place while Bodine managed a disappointing 12th. No doubt he will try to make up for it Saturday night.
Ron Hornaday Jr. isn’t having much luck in the points standings as he continues to tumble down the ranks. The four-time defending series champion placed 29th at Pocono, and dropped to seventh in points.
The last time the series raced at Nashville in the summer, Hornaday earned his fifth consecutive race victory of the season, becoming the first driver in NASCAR’s three national touring series to win five in a row since 1971. The two other drivers who hold this record are Richard Petty and Robby Allison, who both achieved it during the 1971 Cup Series.
Hornaday’s win at Nashville was his first truck series victory on the track, and he received the Gibson guitar trophy, a long awaited achievement.
"It's cool to look back on it and remember the win," Hornaday recalled.
"I was just so excited to finally get that beautiful Gibson guitar. That is a very cool trophy. The thing about Nashville is that [Kevin Harvick Inc.] has run very well there with both our Truck and Nationwide programs. When we were in Nashville earlier this spring, Kevin and I just missed the set-up by a little. We have notes and are better prepared to go back to Nashville. I know we're going to have a great truck. I hope we have the same result as last year."
The track holds sentimental meaning for Hornaday, and he will be trying his best to live up to his former glory there on Saturday. He dominated the track in 2009, leading for 115 of the 154 laps. He has not won a race this season since two weeks ago when he saw the inside of Victory Lane in the O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Hornaday hopes a return to Nashville will springboard him to another Truck Series success.
The Nashville circuit is a 1.333 mile concrete surfaced oval in which cars will make 150 laps. There are 34 teams so far on the preliminary entry list for the Nashville 200.
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