Hornaday, Busch looking at different sides of defense

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- When it comes to defending their titles in 2010, for 24-year-old Nationwide Series champion Kyle Busch, it may be "one and done," while for 51-year-old Camping World Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday, it's "four and counting."

At Monday afternoon's champion's luncheon at Loews Miami Beach hotel, both drivers chatted about what it took to get to this point, and where the future will take them.

In the case of Hornaday, retirement is still well down the road.

Four-time champ

Before he got the call to come drive for Dale Earnhardt nearly 15 seasons ago, Ron Hornaday made his living building race cars. So he knows the importance of having quality equipment on which to place his trust.

• Complete story

You couldn't have asked for a better birthday present than the one Ron Hornaday received at the Milwaukee Mile in June. And in the process, Hornaday turned a 27-point deficit into a 216-point advantage, propelling him to his fourth series championship.

• Complete story
• Hornaday championship gear

First-time champ

Even before the 2008 season ended, Kyle Busch already was making plans for the 2009 Nationwide Series campaign. Despite missing five of the 35 races that year, he still wound up sixth in the final standings, which got him and owners J.D. and Joe Gibbs to thinking ...

• Complete story

It's hard to keep pace with a driver who finishes first or second in 10 consecutive Nationwide Series races. But Carl Edwards managed to stay within striking distance of Kyle Busch for most of the summer, with wins at Milwaukee and Indianapolis, leaving him only 212 points behind with 13 races remaining.

• Complete story
• Busch championship gear

"With the equipment Kevin and DeLana's given me to drive, I'm sure we'll try to go for our fifth one," Hornaday said. "I still feel good behind the wheel. When I slow down and start riding around for my paycheck, my wife will tell me it's time to quit racing. We'll go out there and race as hard as we can until we're riding around. And when we're riding around, it's time to quit."

On Sunday night, Jimmie Johnson joined Hornaday in the society of four-time NASCAR champions. But it wasn't that long ago that Johnson was sleeping on Hornaday's couch.

"He was doing some off-road racing," Hornaday said. "I had seen him at a Chevrolet function. He was going to come up to Charlotte and try to rent a house and get into NASCAR racing. I said, 'If you do, call me and we'll get together.' And he ended up staying at the house. I said, 'Don't waste your money renting a house or anything, stay at the house and we'll find something.' We found him a little place around the corner and he moved in a couple of months later."

There are two people who have been instrumental in Ron Hornaday's racing career: his father and Dale Earnhardt. Both will be on his mind at Monday night's championship banquet, particularly his dad, who died in December.

"When I lost him, it was really tough," Hornaday said. "He always wanted to go to Daytona and run that race. I got to do it for him. It's extra special, the way everything's happened. I lost my mom the same year Dale got killed. It's pretty tough."

And it was Earnhardt's decision to hire Hornaday to drive his truck starting in 1995 that propelled Hornaday out of the chassis-building business and into NASCAR's national series as a full-timer.

"I got an opportunity to work with my dad for five years," Hornaday said. "Then we started our auto repair shop and got the chassis building business going, and then Dale called in 1994. It was a pretty successful chassis shop, where we were building cars for other people. But me and my wife were about out of money running my own race team and stuff, so it was a blessing in disguise when Dale gave us that phone call."

For Busch, running a full-time Nationwide Series schedule in 2010 is highly unlikely. However, he still plans to run all of the companion races on the schedule, then hand off driving duties to Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Matt DiBenedetto. Also in the pipeline is 16-year-old Darrell Wallace Jr.

"I'm not sure if we're having some one-offs here and there, along with a couple of travel weeks," Busch said. "I think it's 24-27 [races] is what we're planning. The races haven't quite gotten worked out yet."

The only full-time Cup driver who has announced plans to run the entire Nationwide schedule next season is Carl Edwards, although Busch hinted that Kevin Harvick -- sitting at the next table -- was considering it as well. However, Harvick pretty much put that rumor to rest with his response.

"I don't know about that," Harvick said. "That's not on the agenda."

For Busch, running in NASCAR's developmental series is a chance to enjoy racing, and give back something to less experienced drivers.

"To me, running in the Nationwide Series, what I love most about it is being able to go race kind of for less pressure," Busch said. "Go race for some wins, go race with the other Cup guys for some wins. There's a lot to race for.

"I remember when I was a full-time Nationwide guy as a rookie in 2004, I loved it when I was racing against Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin, those guys who came in. You could learn so much off of those guys."

But even though he'll be crowned series champion Monday evening, Busch would like to see NASCAR enact some sort of rule prohibiting Cup regulars from being eligible for the Nationwide title.

"[Martin Truex Jr.] won it in '04 and '05 and then it went to the Cup regulars like Harvick, Carl, Clint and myself since then," Busch said. "I'd like to see it go back more in that direction where it's not the full-time guys, where we have the legitimate Nationwide guys racing for the championship.

"I only did it because I'm allowed to right now and J.D. gave me the opportunity. But if NASCAR makes a change to where the Cup guys aren't allowed to run full-time, I think it would be for the better of the Nationwide Series."