Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007 | 7:05 a.m.
Las Vegas Sun
What: Major League of Monster Trucks
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Tickets: $10-$25
On the web: www.lvms.com
Did you know: Monster trucks weigh more than 4 tons and can produce up to 2,200 horsepower.
By Brian Hilderbrand
Twice Ron Hornaday has rolled into Las Vegas Motor Speedway atop the points standings in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series , and twice he has emerged as the series champion.
In both instances - 1996 and 1998 - the Las Vegas race was the season finale. So even though Hornaday comes into Saturday night's Smith's Las Vegas 350 with a 29-point lead over Mike Skinner, he won't be celebrating a third championship this weekend - because this year, six more races follow.
But that Hornaday is in contention for the championship nine years after winning his last title speaks not only to his perseverance, but to the fact that he has, once again, hooked up with a team owner every bit as committed to win as Hornaday.
In the mid-'90s, Dale Earnhardt Sr. plucked Hornaday from the West Coast, where he was running NASCAR Southwest and West Series races, and put him in a Chevrolet in the upstart Truck Series. Hornaday responded by winning 25 races and two championships for Earnhardt from 1995 to 1999.
After forays into the NASCAR Busch and Cup Series from 2000 to 2004, Hornaday was hired by another passionate racer, Kevin Harvick, to return to the Truck Series in 2005 and drive Chevrolets for Kevin Harvick Inc.
Hornaday, 49, credits team owners Kevin and DeLana Harvick for his resurgence in the Truck Series.
"Kevin and DeLana have built an organization where no one ever says die - that is what makes us run hard," he said. "It is a pleasure to drive this stuff."
Hornaday is coming off a victory last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway - his fourth of the season, seventh with Kevin Harvick Inc. and 33rd of his Truck Series career. He will have to be considered one of the pre-race favorites to visit victory lane this weekend.
Although he has an average finish of sixth in six career starts at LVMS, including a fifth-place effort last year, Hornaday has never won on the 1.5-mile LVMS oval.
Two for the show
Jacques Villeneuve won't be the only Indianapolis 500 winner making his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Buddy Lazier, who won the 1996 Indy 500 and the 2000 IndyCar Series championship, is scheduled to start Saturday's Smith's Las Vegas 350 in Billy Ballew Motorsports' No. 15 Chevrolet Silverado.
Lazier, who finished third in the IndyCar race at LVMS in 1998, said his interest in NASCAR began while he was driving in the International Race of Champions Series in 2001 and 2002.
"IROC really was an eye-opener for me into the world of stock-car racing," he said. "Racing with the best in the Nextel Cup, Busch Series and others was a blast.
"It was probably the most fun racing experience for me in my 20 years of professional motor sports."
Kyle Busch, a Las Vegas native, has made five starts in the No. 51 truck this season and recorded a second-place finish in June at Michigan International Speedway - the truck's best finish in 11 outings this year.
Off the track
All the on-track activity for this weekend's Smith's Las Vegas 350 truck race will be confined to Saturday, but race fans will have several opportunities to meet some of the drivers away from the track in the days before the race.
Several Truck Series drivers, including Brendan Gaughan, reigning series champion Todd Bodine, current points leader Ron Hornaday and NASCAR veteran Johnny Benson, will take part in a charity bowling tournament at 7:30 tonight at the South Point bowling center. A $10 donation to Speedway Children's Charities will get fans a free ticket to Saturday night's race.
Gaughan will host an open house from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the South Point Racing team's race shop at the Speedway Commerce Center adjacent to Las Vegas Motor Speedway (6975 Speedway Blvd., Building D-104).
Many of the series' drivers, including Bodine, Ted Musgrave, Kenny Wallace, Villeneuve, Mike Bliss, Jon Wood and Dennis Setzer, will take part in a free autograph session from 7 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Stratosphere.
3
Consecutive poles Mike Skinner has won for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
178.065
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying record at LVMS, in miles per hour, set last year by Mike Skinner.
archive
