Ron Hornaday Jr.

He ran at Phoenix the next year as well, finishing 22nd in the No. 76 Spears Motorsports car.

Hornaday signed to drive the No. 16 RCCA Products/Papa John's Pizza-sponsored Chevrolet C/K owned by Dale Earnhardt, Inc. for the then-start-up Super Truck Series.

In the first season of competition, Hornaday won six races and four poles on his way to a third-place points finish.

The next year, with sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts, Hornaday won four races and the series championship.

He made another start later that year at Phoenix International Raceway, where he finished 25th.

Despite posting a ninth-place finish at Las Vegas, Hornaday struggled throughout the year and finished 38th in points with just two Top 20 finishes and four DNQ's in the second half of the season.

Ronald Lee Hornaday Jr. (born June 20, 1958) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and businessman.

He currently owns Team Hornaday Development, a driver development program as well as Hornaday Race Cars a Dirt Modified chassis builder.

He is also the father of former NASCAR driver Ronnie Hornaday and son of the late Ron Hornaday Sr., a two-time NASCAR Winston West Series Champion.

In 1992, he won his first championship in the Southwest Series as well as winning the Most Popular Driver award.

He made his Winston Cup debut in 1992 at the Save Mart 300K, where he started 17th but finished 32nd in Bob Fisher's No. 92 Chevrolet.

In 1997, despite seven wins, two of which came by leading every lap in the race, he finished fifth in points.

He was able to reclaim his title in 1998 by garnering six wins and 16 top fives out of 27 races.

At Memphis 200 he celebrated with a burnout, which was unusual at the time, and made team owner Dale Earnhardt angry for risking damaging the powertrain.

Also in 1998, Hornaday made his Busch Series debut, driving four races for ST Motorsports, his best finish an eighth at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

He also debuted a Winston Cup car for Tim Beverly at Sonoma, finishing fourteenth in the No. 17 NAPA-sponsored Chevy.

Hornaday came close to a truck victory at Watkins Glen in the 1998 Parts America 150 in which he led all but 12 laps, only to lose the race due to a final-lap penalty for jumping the restart; Hornaday would pull into victory lane post-race only to be told that he had in fact finished fourth.

In 1999, he won the 100th race ran in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history at the Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington.

He was one of four drivers entered in the race that competed in every truck race since its inception at the time for an extra $100,000 if he won, which he did.

However, he was unable to capitalize on it and win the championship, finishing seventh in the final standings after an up and down year.

Fortunately, he was given an opportunity late in the year to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr. in driving the No. 3 NAPA-sponsored Chevy for DEI's Busch program with Earnhardt moving up to the cup series, and he announced that he would do so the following year.

Hornaday began racing full-time in the Busch Series in 2000.

He picked up wins at Nazareth Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park and finished fifth in points, runner-up to Kevin Harvick for Rookie of the Year honors.

He was also voted Most Popular Driver.

However, Earnhardt elected to move Hornaday's team up to the Cup series in 2001 and hire Michael Waltrip to drive the car, and Hornaday was released.

Hornaday signed with A.J. Foyt Racing in the Cup series, driving the No. 14 Conseco-sponsored Pontiac Grand Prix.

During the 2001 season, Hornaday returned to the Busch Series on a part-time basis, running the No. 11 for HighLine Performance Group before finishing out the year with The Curb Agajanian Performance Group, posting three Top 10's.

Hornaday later criticized Foyt for dismissing him so late in the season, although Foyt unsuccessfully offered Hornaday a Cup Series return in mid-2002.

In 2002, he drove for Hendrick Motorsports' truck team at the season-opening Florida Dodge Dealers 250, where he finished 12th.

In 2003, Hornaday signed to drive the No. 2 ACDelco-sponsored Chevy for Richard Childress Racing.

He won the Southwest championship the next year as well, becoming the only driver to do so in series history until Jim Pettit won back-to-back titles in 2004–2005.

Hornaday himself is a four-time champion in the NASCAR Truck Series, his most recent coming in 2009 and is a NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Champion.

He was noticed by Dale Earnhardt while participating in the NASCAR Winter Heat on TNN.

Hornaday was born in Palmdale, California, and began racing in go-karts and motorcycles early in his career.

Eventually, he moved up to race stock cars at Saugus Speedway.

He had eight Top 10s and a pole, finishing 18th in points despite only running 30 of the 36 races.

He also capped the season off with a win in the truck series at Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving for Xpress Motorsports.

Pettit won the title again in 2011 in the SRL Southwest Tour Series.

After Hendrick closed the doors to its truck team, Hornaday moved to their Busch program, filling in for an injured Ricky Hendrick in the No. 5 GMAC-sponsored Chevy, his best finish 15th at Darlington Raceway.

A few races later, he replaced Lyndon Amick in the No. 26 Dr Pepper-sponsored car for Carroll Racing.