A Tire-Saving Plan Helps Hornaday Win

Ron Hornaday, content to let others lead while he saved his tires, surged to the front with 38 laps left in Saturday’s Colorado 250 for a record-tying third consecutive victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Erie, Colo.

Hornaday, who qualified his Chevrolet on the pole, didn’t take the lead until the 65th of 250 laps at Colorado National Speedway.

Following the mid-race break, Hornaday again chose to conserve his tires and let Mike Bliss extend his advantage to more than four seconds before beginning a move back to the front.

He caught Bliss in heavy traffic in the third turn of the 3/8-mile track, as the pair lapped Joe Ruttman’s Ford. Bliss, also in a Ford, held on to finish second, 2.29 seconds behind.

“I wasn’t even thinking about three in a row or anything but winning,” said Hornaday, the 39-year-old driver from Palmdale who matched Skinner’s consecutive victory mark and became the first series driver to win four times in a five-race stretch.

The virtually caution-free race allowed Hornaday to break Mike Skinner’s 1996 record with an average of 62.978 mph. Hornaday’s fifth victory of the 1997 season was worth $37,200.

*

Dario Franchitti, a rookie from Scotland, showed he is a fast learner by beating a quartet of CART veterans to win the pole for today’s Toronto Molson-Indy.

Franchitti, 24, had a record-setting lap of 105.695 mph in a Reynard-Mercedes on the temporary street circuit. Today’s race is a 95-lap, 163.5-mile race on a tight 1.271-mile, 11-turn course.

Car owner Carl Hogan has paid the bills this season while searching for a team sponsor.

“We’ve been up against it this year with no sponsor,” Franchitti said. “That makes this a little sweeter.”

It’s the first pole for Hogan since 1992 when he co-owned a well-sponsored team with Bobby Rahal. That partnership broke up after the 1995 season.

Englishman Mark Blundell remained second by improving to 105.142, giving the United Kingdom its first front-row sweep in CART. Rahal jumped from 11th to third at 104.921.

Points leader Paul Tracy crashed in the morning practice, finishing 14th in his repaired car.

*

Cory McClenathan of Anaheim led top-fuel qualifying for the Mile-High Nationals at Morrison, Colo., covering a quarter-mile in 4.731 seconds with a top speed of 306.01 mph. Whit Bazemore topped the funny car division for the first time in his career with a 5.136-second run at 301.10 mph. Jim Yates qualified first in pro stock with a track-record time of 7.403 seconds at 184.61 mph.