Hornaday trucks into Vegas in first

Monday, Oct. 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

PHOENIX -- Ron Hornaday Jr. needs only to finish in 18th place or better Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to clinch the 1996 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, but the Palmdale, Calif., resident isn't breathing easy.

"It's never comfortable -- I'd like to go to the last race with a 180-point lead," Hornaday said after his seventh-place finish in the Delco Battery 300K at Phoenix International Raceway.

Hornaday's lead over Mike Skinner, who finished fourth at Phoenix, shrunk from 86 to 72 points. Race winner Jack Sprague remained third in the points race but closed the gap on Hornaday from 133 to 99 points.

"We were looking for a top-five finish (at Phoenix)," said Hornaday, who is looking to unseat defending champion Skinner in the two-year-old series. "Fortunately, Skinner only finished fourth and didn't move too close to me in the points.

"Mike and Jack are pretty tough and it's going to come right down to the wire. We just have to keep running and doing the things that we've been doing and try to get that top-five out of it."

So what will be Hornaday's plan of attack when the popular truck series visits the 1.5-mile tri-oval in Las Vegas for its season finale?

"If I start defensive driving and worry about finishing in the top 18 or whatever I've got to do, I'm in trouble," said Hornaday, who has four wins this season. "I've got to go out there and run like I've been running all year long and try to run for a top-five.

"It's a long race out there, so you've got to put yourself in position to finish in the top five. Once you do that, you can go for (the win). There's nothing more in my goal than to go out and win the last race and clinch the championship."

Hornaday battled the setup on his NAPA United Brakes Park Chevrolet all afternoon on the PIR mile oval and never made a serious run at Sprague, who led 144 of the 186 laps.

"We fought a tightness in the middle of the corners the whole (race)," Hornaday said. "No matter what we did, it didn't seem to work. We changed brakes, changed tire setups and nothing worked for us.

"It's tough to come out here when a lot of your family and friends are out here and run as bad as we did -- I'm not saying it's bad, but the truck was tight and we couldn't get it to work all day. But we did what we had to do for the championship and we'll see if we can do it one more time."

Prior to last weekend's race, Hornaday had a little heart-to-heart talk with seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion and team owner Dale Earnhardt, who reiterated to his driver the importance of running near the front consistently.

"He just keeps telling us, putting it in the back of our heads, 'If you can get those top fives, those top fives will bring you a championship,'" said Hornaday, who has 18 top-five finishes this season. "We were looking for a top-five and we got a top-seven out of it. The way the team's been working all year, if we can do the same thing (this) week in Vegas, that's all we need to do."