NASCAR WCUP: Talladega 500 Post Race Notes, Ron Hornaday

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

April 22, 2001

RON HORNADAY, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX (22nd):

"That was awesome. We didn't qualify that well with the Conseco Pontiac, but it was strong today. I worked with Tony [Stewart] a little bit and I'll tell you, I wish I could have gotten hooked up with him towards the end. It seemed like my car wanted to run in the second groove. It wouldn't run on the bottom. I needed to be in the second groove.

"But, I learned a bunch and I got some friends, I hope. I know I lost some friends, but that's part of Talladega."

(ON BEING AGGRESSIVE THE ENTIRE RACE) "The problem was, I was backing off and the more I backed off, the faster the car was. I'm just pretty excited about the whole weekend. Our guys put a great car together, and Richard Childress gave us a great plate motor. That thing stayed together all day. "I'm just happy. I finished Talladega, we had no crashes, nobody got hurt - that's awesome."

(DID EVERYBODY RACE FAIRLY SMART TODAY?) "I think we saw some real smart racing. I got up there -- and I'd been running three-wide all day - and I got a good draft and got up underneath the '40' car and the '29.' The '40' came down, we touched and it hurt the front fenders of the car. I don't know if that took us out, but I don't think so. We just needed the right partner."

Text Provided By Al Larsen

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