Hornaday happy with new opportunity at Carroll

NAZARETH, Pa. -- After two solid performances at two widely different venues last weekend, Ron Hornaday's future has become a little clearer.

Hornaday, 43, began the 2002 season unemployed after being released at the end of 2001 by Winston Cup owner A.J. Foyt.

The Palmdale, Calif., veteran's potential impact was recognized by owner Rick Hendrick, who loaned Hornaday one of son Ricky Hendrick's 2001 Craftsman Truck Series vehicles which Hornaday promptly put on the front row for the season opener at Daytona.

But into April, working for Hendrick was all Hornaday was able to muster. Hendrick called on Hornaday to sub for Ricky when the younger Hendrick suffered a shoulder injury in the third Busch Series event of the season.

That exposure put Hornaday in a position to get a five-race trial with Busch Series owner Dave Carroll, who released Lyndon Amick as the driver of his No. 26 Dr Pepper Chevrolets after 10 races.

In that series, Hornaday equaled the car's best finish of the season in his first outing, at New Hampshire.

Then came the offer to work with BAM Racing in the Winston Cup Series, driving the team's No. 49 Dodge in a pair of events at Lowe's Motor Speedway in a fact finding mission for the second year team that employs Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Shawna Robinson.

Team manager Eddie Jones, who had been using Hornaday's expertise in a consultant's role, wanted some answers about the quality of his team's cars and the effectiveness of his crew.

Sunday at Nazareth Speedway, before he saddled up for his first laps in the Carroll Racing Chevrolet, Hornaday said BAM was going in the right direction.

"We just needed to work on the balance of the cars a little bit is all," Hornaday said after he posted good practice and qualifying efforts, before finishing 11th in the Winston Open. "The cars are real good -- very clean -- and there is nothing wrong with them."

Hornaday, who won a pair of Craftsman Truck Series championships and set a number of records in the series in which he ran every race from its inception until he left to run for Busch Series Rookie of the Year in 2000, said the team's problems might be nothing more than what any other rookie would go through.

Robinson had tested at Lowe's Motor Speedway before the team opted to run Hornaday in the two high profile weekends. Hornaday said she was on the radio with the rest of the team members throughout The Winston weekend and he had a lot of conversations with her as well.

"Everything she felt, I was feeling," Hornaday said of his time in the BAM Dodge. "When we talked she described to me the same things I was feeling. It might be something as simple as the way she is saying it isn't getting through."

Hornaday said being a rookie in any racing division is far from an easy proposition, no matter what the sex or race of the driver.

"She says no one will talk to her -- well, she's a rookie and no one is gonna talk to you when you're a rookie," said the driver who finished fifth in points but was second in the rookie race in his first Busch season. "Being a woman has nothing to do with it. It just takes time. I had to beat and bang a lot of fenders before I earned these guys' respect.

"I think part of it might be a lack of confidence in her… Again, that is something you just need to keep working on."

For his part, Hornaday might have gone a long way towards securing his future with Carroll's team. He drove through the field from a 26th starting position to third.

"This means a lot to me, especially since I need a job," Hornaday said. "Dave Carroll and I have got a (handshake) deal to run the rest of the year (and) we are trying to put together a contract for a three- to five-year deal. I am trying to put something together for my son to do -- get him in the car for some experience."