NASCAR Truck

Dover: Hornaday post race interview

RON HORNADAY, NO. 33 CAMPING WORLD SILVERADO, FINISHED 3RD: "Oh, it's exciting, I got to tell you. Rick ran all the guys again. I've got to keep thanking him, because this is another brand new truck and to come here and do what we done, is really ...

Published: May 31, 2008, 10:29 AM

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RON HORNADAY, NO. 33 CAMPING WORLD SILVERADO, FINISHED 3RD:

"Oh, it's exciting, I got to tell you. Rick ran all the guys again. I've got to keep thanking him, because this is another brand new truck and to come here and do what we done, is really great. We were fast in practice and we knew we weren't very good on new tires and it showed in qualifying and it showed it at the beginning of the run, but that thing really took off at the middle part of the stages of the race and toward the end of the run. But I had a lot happen toward the last 25 laps. We broke a header or a spark plug wire came off or something. We were running seven cylinders. But to come home third, that says a lot to what Mark Smith's done to our motor program and Chevrolet and KHI and everybody. I seen (Scott) Speed up there and I was just running him down just a little bit at a time, and that thing kept turning in the middle better and better. He drove up the track and I got to within 10 or 15 trucks of him and I come off the corner and she went flat, the motor did. So I'm really curious. I'd like to go back and see what's up because Mark's stuff never has problems like that. So if it's a plug wire or a header, last year I broke a header here and it did the same thing. It acted the same. So we'll see. We'll get back over there and see. I'm just glad for KHI. Jack (Sprague) finished second and we finished third, so it was a good points day for us after the last couple of weeks I've been having."

ON THE RESTART, DID YOU KNOW YOU WEREN'T GOING TO BE ABLE TO GET UP TO POWER?

"Yeah, Rick Carelli, my spotter, he's on top of the game, and he let everybody know on the inside that I'm going to be squeezing them down a little bit. We didn't get a scratch on the truck because of that. That's a class act what Rick Carelli does, he stays on top of the game. Heck, I probably could have stayed in front of him if I knew the truck was that fast through the corners, but he was definitely down the straightaways faster, so we had to let him go and it's a shame because we were definitely better through the middle; just down the straightaway with a broken header or whatever it didn't do it. But yeah, to answer your question, yeah, I knew it was laying down. I switched boxed, I turned off everything in the truck to make sure it wasn't the charging system. But yeah, we broke a header or something stupid."

WERE YOU FRUSTRATED WITH JACK SPRAGUE AFTER THAT?

"Ah, no, because I was stupid to let him go by. I didn't know we were going to be that fast. Yeah, we were rolling so much better than Jack was. It looked like he was tight if he drove it in too hard, and he'd turn it and when he'd come off the corner he'd be taking air off my nose. I was just so worried about the No. 09 catching us and Travis has done a great job just jumping in that thing. Aero dependence was so much. I'd back my corner up and I'd really get a run through the middle and the way Jack was running the track, it would just take the air off my nose coming off. So yeah, it was frustrating but there was nothing you could do about it. I was no more frustrated than what happened to that exhaust or whatever happened."

SCOTT SPEED IS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL THAN WHAT WE'VE HAD IN THE PAST. HOW DOES HE FIT INTO THE SERIES?

"He is a winner now in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, so he's going to fit in really well. I raced him hard. He don't know me that well because at the start of the race he turned left on me and I had to lift a little bit. At the next restart, I got a pretty good run on him and he did the same thing, so I don't know who's spotting for him. Dover is not a place to teach a rookie anything and all that stuff and I've had enough conflicts with Toyota and I think they had their little team meeting to make sure they run into one of the Chevrolets when they pass them because it seems like that's all they do lately. But other than that, I'm glad to see him win it. That was cool. He drove his butt off and he outsmarted us on the pits stops and he ended up winning."

SPEED JUST HAD HIS TOENAIL PAINTED BLUE. ANY CHANCE THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN?

"Well, he seen my wife last week. She had her's painted blue, so I don't know. He can do whatever he wants to do. He still beat me so that means I've got to go do my toenails or fingernails."

-credit: gm racing

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