Hornaday Winds Up Back in Pack at 19th

Ron Hornaday Jr., a native of Palmdale who finished in the top 10 in all three NASCAR Craftsman Truck series races he competed in at California Speedway, finished 19th in the Auto Club 300 NASCAR Busch Grand National series race Saturday.

According to Hornaday, the racing surface changed between Friday’s final practice and the race Saturday, and by the time his crew could adjust the car’s suspension, he had fallen one lap behind the leaders. Seven cars spun out of the race.

“[Friday], we wanted the car to be pretty free,” Hornaday said. “We came out [Saturday] morning and it was even looser than we expected.

“When you have a day like [Saturday], you feel like you should have won. The team’s better than that and the car’s better than that. I feel the team should have won a race already.”

Hornaday is in fifth place in the points standings, and he leads Kevin Harvick of Bakersfield in the rookie of the year points standings, 119-99. Harvick finished 14th.

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NASCAR Winston Cup regular Johnny Benson was impressed by some of the driving he saw from NASCAR Winston West series regulars during the Pontiac Wide Track Grand Prix 200 Winston West race Saturday.

“Four or five of these cars were pretty fast,” Benson said. “There were some mistakes, but [in today’s Winston Cup race] you’ll see a lot of guys making mistakes.”

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Bryan Herta of Valencia qualified 20th for the Rio 200 CART Champ Car series race today at Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway at Nelson Piquet International Raceway in Rio de Janeiro.

Herta averaged 169.369 mph in a Reynard-Honda on the 1.864-mile D-shaped oval.