Driven to SUCCESS

Seems like there are more juniors in the world of auto racing than the local public high school.

Andretti, Unser, Earnhardt...all families in which racing practically is a birthright passed from father to son.

Then there is Ron Hornaday--son of and father to Ron Hornaday, as well as son-in-law to a former racer. Yet, Hornaday is anything but stuck in the middle of three generations of racing heritage.

Hornaday, 40, rapidly becoming one of the best NASCAR talents to emerge from the West Coast, answers simply to Ron Hornaday these days. A decade ago, the Palmdale native carried the title “junior,” as well as modified division champion at Saugus Speedway, the short track his father dominated in the 1960s.

Hornaday may finally be just plain Ron Hornaday, but he has been anything but ordinary since shifting from stock-car to truck racing three years ago.

Last Sunday at Nazareth, Penn., Hornaday cruised to a record 21st career victory on the Craftsman Truck series, a division that has soared in popularity since its inception in 1995.

Hornaday, the series’ champion in 1996, is second in points entering the tour’s annual 200-mile race today at California Speedway. The race will be broadcast live on ESPN at 1.

With a series-best three victories in 11 races, Hornaday is 72 points behind leader Jack Sprague.

At Nazareth, Hornaday grabbed the lead from pole-sitter Mike Bliss on the 57th lap of the 200-mile race and, well, never looked back.

Hornaday never looked better than he did starring as himself and doing schtick in a recurring auto parts commercial aired between laps during the nationally televised race.

“I’m not a person who can read off scripts,” Hornaday said. “But I’m pretty good at imagining what they want from me. I have fun doing it. It’s fun to get your name and face out there.”

He’s come a long way. Seven years ago, Hornaday pulled up an grimy crate in his Newhall garage and sat for a cigarette and an interview during a break from his day job as an auto mechanic.

This week, Hornaday relaxed in an air-conditioned lounge at the immaculate two-year-old Fontana track while reflecting on his career. Outside, in sweltering heat, roadies unloaded from a trailer the team’s NAPA Brakes Chevrolet after a cross-country journey.

Racer-car drivers never really get anywhere, considering they’re always speeding from one race to the next. But in Hornaday’s case, it appears he has arrived.

On Wednesday, Hornaday made a promotional appearance in Palmdale and was greeted by several hundred fans.

“It’s probably the most I’ve ever seen at an autograph session,” Hornaday said. “It’s a very nice homecoming, people coming up to me and telling me they respect me for where I came from and where I am.

“This is what I’ve always wanted to do. You work your butt off trying to make money and it’s a struggle. I quit racing two or three times. But it’s finally taken me where I am.”

Where Hornaday is, is on the cusp of a leap the Winston Cup series, NASCAR’s major-league circuit that includes the storied Daytona 500. Job offers appear certain to come in time for Hornaday, considering his track record.

“My main dream was always to drive for a major racing team, and I’ve fulfilled that,” Hornaday said. “But now I have a goal to go to Daytona. I don’t care if it’s in a Busch car or a bicycle, I want to race Daytona.”

Since 1995, Hornaday has driven full-time for owner Teresa Earnhardt, wife of Dale, the seven-time Winston Cup champion.

Already the only two-time champion of the NASCAR Southwest Tour, Hornaday caught the Earnhardts’ eye while driving a Winston West race at Tucson Raceway Park in late 1994.

Hornaday had rubbed shoulders with his racing idol but was unprepared for the telephone message he received after arriving home Monday.

“There was a phone call from Dale,” Hornaday said. “I called him back and I told them I’d be more than interested in driving their truck. I was surprised because I had met him a couple of times, but that was it.”

Ron Hornaday Sr., 67, dominated short tracks from Tijuana to Spokane, winning consecutive Winston West titles in 1963 and ‘64, as well as multiple titles at Saugus.

But Ron Sr. never motored further east than Phoenix for a race.

“I had a family and some kids and I had a job, so I decided I could never pack up and move,” Ron Sr. said. “He called me after he got the call from Dale and I said, “Pack up and go!”

Hornaday did, relocating his wife and two children in late 1995 to their current home in North Carolina, NASCAR’s infield.

Hornaday won six races and finished third the first season. In 1996, he won six races and had 23 top-10 finishes, winning on short tracks, superspeedways and road courses.

Last season’s championship defense began with a crash at Walt DisneyWorld Speedway. Despite seven victories, Hornaday finished fifth.

This season, Hornaday has won at Walt DisneyWorld, Phoenix and Nazareth.

“He’s just a very talented driver, probably the best I’ve ever worked with,” said Fred Graves, Hornaday’s crew chief. “His father brought him up with it. A year ago, he didn’t have that much confidence on the tracks. Experience has helped him.”

Genes, it might also be argued, have helped--although not as much as in the case of Hornaday’s son.

Ron Hornaday III, 18, the grandson of two former West Coast racing legends, currently is third in points in his rookie season driving late model stocks at Caraway Speedway in North Carolina.

Unlike his grandfather and namesake, who travels by motor home to virtually all of Hornaday’s races, “Ronnie,” remains in North Carolina much of the racing season.

“He’ll have an opportunity to reach his goals more easily now because of Ron,” said Lindy Hornaday, Ron’s wife of 19 years. “But right now he works by himself in a tiny garage and he has to turn sideways to jack his race car up.”

Lindy, the daughter of Wild Bill Foster, a rival of Ron Sr., met Ron at a post-race party in the late ‘70s.

“He approached me and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you and I got married and we had a son? What a great race car driver he would be,’ ” she said. “Ronnie never really said he wanted to race and then he floored us. And then he really floored us when saw how good he is.”

Ron Hornaday Jr. boasts that Ron III ultimately might become the best driver of the three. Regardless, Ron Hornaday III will have to contend with something his father did: his father’s reputation.

“He’s a little bit smoother,” Hornaday said. “He has his grandfather’s genes from both sides. All along I’ve said I want to put my kid in a race car. Since all this has opened up for me, I’ve had to put it kind of on the back burner. But he’s racing on his own level now with not much help. That’s what we want.”