[CTS Trucker]

In his 30th NASCAR national series start at Phoenix International Raceway, Ron Hornaday on Friday night made a critical mistake on the first lap of the Lucas Oil 150 that looked like it would cost him a shot at his record fourth Craftsman Truck Series title.

Hornaday's error, Benson's malaise has CTS near even

[Racer Duck]

I've never been particularly fond or Mr. Hornaday, but this race caused me to change my estimation of him.

After the incident on lap one, it was reported that Hornaday came on the radio and apologized to the team for wrecking the truck. He further explained he had dialed in too much rear brake and it just got away from him. (I was mildly surprised he admitted such a thing .. it being so out of character for him .. and put a gold star next to his name.)

The announcers analyzed and analyzed the dozens of replays and deemed Kyle had given Ron more than enough room going into the corner and that Ron had just gone in too hard, causing his truck to push up the track into Kyle.

After he returned to the track he drove well and made sure he stayed out of the way of faster trucks (another gold star) as well as recognizing potentially dangerous situations and getting out of them as quickly as possible .. usually by falling back (and a 3rd gold star!) This guy was doing everything right after his screwup on lap 1!!!

After the race, during the post race interview he whined about Kyle driving him so hard (I kinda expected that, but was mildly surprised because of the way he'd conducted himself during the race), implying Kyle wasn't running for the Championship so should have given the lead to Ron. Then he said Kyle came down on him and spun him!

With that last I lost all respect for the man.

If he's gonna tell his crew one story then paint a completely different picture in the post race interview for the cameras, he does not deserve to be the CTS Champion!

Obviously he didn't know his radio conversation had been reported to the viewers, so he tried to besmirch another driver just because that driver was there to win the race, not run for the Championship. His whining is something we all put up with and I don't deny the man's talent, but this latest shows the kind of character he has and, quite frankly, that's not the type of person CTS needs as their Champion and Ambassador. There's been plenty of sleazy people in NASCAR over the years, but Ron Hornaday has go to rank near the very bottom of the barrel.

[Bob Tanner]

Thanks, Duck. When I heard that (his post race accusation) I thought that I misunderstood what he said. However, I was just switching channels (I just don't need the canned, obligatory sponsor mentioning post race interviews) and went on to the local news and forgot about it. But, now that you have mentioned it, it was a really stupid thing to say, in light of the multiple camera angles. I missed his inference that Shrub should have just let him by "because he's running for the championship." With that kind of attitude I don't see how Hornaday missed being a successful Cup driver!

Besides, you know what they say about saying "Should?" When you say "should," you often end up "shoulding" all over yourself.