Ron Hornaday Jr. holds off Austin Dillon by .438 seconds for his third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday in Sparta, Ky. (Justin Edmonds/Getty Images for NASCAR)by NASCAR Media PR
Ron Hornaday Jr., the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series only four-time champion, posted his record-extending 50th victory in the Kentucky 225 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night.

Hornaday, from Palmdale, Calif., is the only active, full-time competitor whose career dates to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ inaugural event at Phoenix International Raceway on Feb. 5, 1995. He won the Keystone Light Pole for that race and collected his first victory two months later at Tucson (Ariz.) Raceway Park.

The 53-year-old Hornaday has won races on 30 different tracks. He is the series’ all-time short track winner with 22 victories and also won three times on road courses. Eleven of his 50 victories came from a pole position start.

Beginning in 1995, when Hornaday drove for Dale Earnhardt Inc., he has won at least once in each of 12 seasons in which he was a full-time competitor and 13 years overall. His most prolific season was 1997 when he won seven times. He has won six or more times in five different seasons. Saturday’s victory was his third of the 2011 season.

Hornaday won championships with DEI in 1996 and 1998 and with Kevin Harvick Inc. in 2007 and 2009. He has ranked among the top five in the points standings eight times.

“Ron has been the heart and soul of the Truck series,” said Kevin Harvick, the owner for 24 of Hornaday’s victories. “Fifty wins is just one more incredible achievement in a career that I’m sure will one day land him in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.”

Hornaday holds series records for most top-five (143) and top-10 (205) finishes. He recently passed Joe Ruttman to claim the most victories – 14, now 15 – by a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver age 50 years or older. Hornaday stands third all-time among series pole winners with 26.

by Kyle Luetters
Paul McMahan had lady luck on his side as he picked up his fourth victory of the 2011 season at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif. With a challenging racing surface, the Elk Grove, Calif. native made the best of his pole position starting spot to lead all 25 laps. The starting spot was by virtue of his win in the night’s dash. McMahan started the dash thanks to a drawing of six, which placed him on the front row.

“To get a win here in front of (team co-owners) Dennis and Teresa Roth is huge for this team,” said McMahan. “The dash draw really helped us and it ment we got to start up front which was key. The track started taking rubber early on (in the night) and they worked it a little bit after time trials. For the feature, it still had a lot of rubber so I was trying to be patient as I worked my way around here. I knew Jason (Meyers) would give me a run for my money near the end and I had to keep him at bay. Great win tonight but we want to be golden tomorrow night.”

Meyers did try to make one last ditch effort to get around McMahan as he charged hard into turn three on the final lap but eventually had to settle for second. While he didn’t get the win, Meyers extended his points lead as second place runner in the standings, Donny Schatz, was caught up in an early race incident.

“I think they have it mixed up and the trophy girl should be standing next to me since she’s taller than Paul,” Meyers joked in Victory Lane. “It wasn’t quite the show we wanted to put on for the fans tonight but our DDNi/Media-Tile/All-Star Performance car was fast all night. Hat’s off to the crew and everyone around here. It’s great to race in front of these fans since I’m from here and hopefully we can pull off a win tomorrow night.”

Finishing third on the night was a relative newcomer to the Outlaws in the form of Shane Golobric. The Fremont, Calif. driver completed the “California Sweep” of the top three finishers and admitted that he learned quite a bit from the veterans who took the checkers ahead of him.

“Jason Meyers gave me sprint car 101 there,” said Golobric. “He made the move around me that allowed him to get second. I’m just glad to be out here learning and watching these guys. It really is a thrill to get our first podium finish and we hope we can get another good finish here tomorrow night.”

Listen to the Iowa Speedway Feature Podcast

By Kevin Ramsell
The Midwest is blessed with a variety of racetracks for fans to enjoy and there is one that caters to each fan. But its rare to find a track that caters to a fan who likes the competition a short track gives and the speed of a super speedway. Iowa Speedway in Newton, IA may be a track that can cater to that fan.

The track was designed by ABC/ESPN Racing Analyst and 1989 NASCAR Champion Rusty Wallace. The track is 7/8-mile in length with 12, 13, 14 degree progressive banking in each turn and has seating for up to 30,000 people. But that will increase as they will host its first NASCAR Nationwide Series race later this year.

Its a facility that is not only racer friendly but is fan friendly as well. It’s motto is “America’s Place to Race.” A motto that was created by its management to set as a goal to what they would like their track to be, and they are quickly living up to that motto.