Ron Hornaday Jr.

Ronald Lee Hornaday Jr. (born June 20, 1958) is an American former professional

Hornaday signed to drive the No. 16

At the end of 2004, Hornaday was released in favor of

On September 10, 2008, ESPN's Shaun Assael reported Hornaday admitted to using testosterone cream. He used it to treat Graves' disease.^[1] On December 21, 2008, Hornaday's father Ron Hornaday Sr., died due to cancer.

On June 20, 2009, Hornaday won the

On November 13, 2009, he won his fourth Camping World Truck Series championship, joining Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jimmie Johnson as the only drivers to win 4 or more titles in the three major series of NASCAR. He also became the first driver since Greg Biffle in 2000 to clinch the title before the last race of the season.

For the final three races of the

In 2011, Hornaday won four races. However, in the later stages of the season, he struggled with consistency, compared to his other seasons. As a result, Hornaday drove three races in the #2 KHI truck, to help the team catch up in the standings. By the time he was back in the #33 truck, Hornaday was second in the series being 15 points behind Austin Dillon when he reached the penultimate race of the year at Texas. There Hornaday raced behind rival Kyle Busch and reached second place. When Hornaday passed by Busch on lap 13, he made contact with Busch to avoid a slowing truck of Johnny Chapman and in the next turn under a caution, Busch intentionally slammed into Hornaday pushing him head-on into the wall. Hornaday was mathematically eliminated from contention for the Truck title. Busch received suspension from the NNS and NSCS race that weekend as a result.^[2] Hornaday later said that after hearing Busch's arrogance after the incident, he was going to settle matters with Busch at the end of the race, but was restrained and instead had a phone call with Busch a couple days after that sizzled the feud.^[3]

2012–2014

During the 2011 season, it was announced that Hornaday would drive for

With one race remaining in the season, Hornaday was released from the No. 9 truck by NTS Motorsports; in the season finale he drove a sixth truck for Turner Scott Motorsports, finishing fifth.^[7] He started the 2014 season once again driving for TSM in the No. 30 truck at Daytona International Speedway, with former KHI sponsor Rheem backing the team.^[8] Due to an internal dispute within TSM, Hornaday did not race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, after it was initially reported that all three truck teams would shut down.^[9]

Two days later on September 2, Hornaday was released and Turner Scott Motorsports dissolved the 30 team, with owners Steve Turner and Harry Scott Jr. in the process of filing lawsuits against each other. Hornaday was 4th in points prior to the Canada race, and still 6th in points when he was released. On September 13, it was announced that Rheem would partner again with Hornaday at Las Vegas and Texas later that year with NTS Motorsports, the team that had released him in 2013.^[10] He missed 6 races late in the season and was 14th in points at the season's end.

Brief Cup Series return

On January 21, 2015,

In his first attempt, Hornaday failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 after posting the slowest time in qualifying and then lacking the necessary speed to stay in the draft in his Budweiser Duel race. In his second attempt, Hornaday qualified and made his first race in 12 years. Hornaday finished 42nd due to his rear gear breaking. His team skipped the next three races in the West Coast swing to prepare for Martinsville. He did not qualify after wrecking his car during qualifying. After Hornaday once again failed to qualify at Bristol, he and the team parted ways.

On his brief return to Sprint Cup competition and his sudden retirement, Hornaday said in a 2016 interview, "That was helping a team get started and all that stuff. It didn’t seem to work out. I was always the guy, I told my wife that I’m not going to go out there and ride around just for a paycheck. If I wasn’t competitive I wasn’t going to do it. That (opportunity) didn’t work out. But I’ve got a lot of opportunities. People call me and say, ‘Hey, do you want to drive Martinsville?’ I said ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ And they’d say, ‘Well, how much money can you bring?’ That ain’t racing to me anymore so…it’s back to dirt racing and having fun.”

Hornaday has not raced in NASCAR since. He is currently a dirt modified chassis builder, owning Hornaday Race Cars.^[12]

Recognition

April 8, 2010 was declared Ron Hornaday Jr. Day in

• 
  Hornaday in 2008
• 
  2009 Nationwide car
• 
  2010 Nationwide car

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

Sprint Cup Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led

Daytona 500

Xfinity Series

Camping World Truck Series

Winston West Series

ARCA Menards Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ron Hornaday, Jr..

• Official website
• Ron Hornaday Jr. driver statistics at Racing-Reference

Sporting positions
Preceded by Mike Skinner Jack Sprague Todd Bodine Johnny Benson Jr.	NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion 1996 1998 2007 2009	Succeeded by Jack Sprague Jack Sprague Johnny Benson Jr. Todd Bodine
Preceded by Rick Carelli	NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Champion 1992, 1993	Succeeded by Steve Portenga
Awards
Preceded by Dale Earnhardt Jr.	NASCAR Busch Series Most Popular Driver 2000	Succeeded by Kevin Harvick
Preceded by Steve Park	NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Most Popular Driver 1997 2005	Succeeded by Stacy Compton Johnny Benson Jr.