Hornaday enjoys chance to diversify
By Rick Herrin | Star-Telegram

Forget about getting too old. Ron Hornaday Jr. believes he has another decade left of hard-charging the turns.

The 49-year-old, three-time (Truck Series) champion is pushing the age limits compared to his peach-fuzz peers but Hornaday is still proving he has a lot left.

Hornaday, who drives for Kevin and DeLana Harvick, has found a late-career rejuvenation after signing with the team-owning couple in 2005. It propelled him to a Truck series championship last year, but he'll be at Texas Motor Speedway this week to race in the Nationwide Series O'Reilly 300. Yet another benefit of driving for Harvick.

"I could have went out there and got a different team and rode around and everybody would say, 'Look at Hornaday, he's 49 and he can't drive anymore and it's time for him to retire,'" said Hornaday, who is third in the (Truck Series) standings. "To get in a class team with a great sponsor it's keeping me going for another eight to 10 years in racing."

Hornaday is scheduled to start five Nationwide races this year, and the O'Reilly 300 marks the first of the season. He is also scheduled to race in Mexico on April 20.

While the Truck series remains his main focus, getting in a Nationwide car is something he calls the "perks" of driving for KHI. And Hornaday shares his boss' philosophy about the Saturday races.

"He has nothing to do on Saturday and that's why he does it and I said, 'Hey boss, remember me? I am kind of bored too,'" Hornaday said.

TMS president and general manager Eddie Gossage believes the Hornaday-Harvick connection has been a perfect match and given new life to the veteran who has more than 200 career Truck starts.

"It's kept his career alive," Gossage said of Hornaday. "Ron is older than most of the guys, but he can still drive the wheels off a race car. If he hadn't hooked up with Kevin and DeLana, I don't know where he would be. It seems like a natural fit."

DeLana Harvick believes the team added another face of the Truck series when Kevin signed Hornaday in only-in-NASCAR fashion...

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