Camping World Truck Series

Kevin Harvick Inc. and E-Z-GO have announced a seven-race sponsorship deal for Ron Hornaday, Jr.'s No. 33 Chevrolet.

E-Z-GO, a Textron company, makes golf carts for leisure and work, and a line of utility vehicles used in various industries.

The company is set to promote it's first street-legal vehicle, the E-Z-GO 2Five on Hornaday's Chevrolet.

The 2Five looks like a luxurious golf cart that comes with options for headlights, tail lights, a windshield with a wiper, seat belts, and mirrors.

It'll hit a top speed of 25 mph, can be titled, and licensed drivers can operate the 2Five on most public roads that have a posted speed limit of 35 miles or less.

I've actually seen a couple of them at the Villages here in Florida, and they look pretty cool.

"We are excited to grow our partnership with Kevin Harvick Inc. and Ron Hornaday, and take advantage of this unique opportunity to promote the 2Five," said Kevin Holleran, president of E-Z-GO.

"I'm really excited to have E-Z-GO join the No. 33 Truck Series team," Hornaday said.

"E-Z-GO's schedule of races hit several good tracks for me and I'm looking forward to taking KHI and E-Z-GO back to victory lane."

"We're very happy to team E-Z-GO and Ron Hornaday for seven races throughout this season," Harvick said.

"Atlanta Motor Speedway was an awesome experience for me, winning my first Truck Series event there with E-Z-GO as the sponsor of our No. 2 truck and the race.

"I'm very happy with the E-Z-GO vehicle that I won during the race and I believe that the added exposure E-Z-GO will get from their association with the No. 33 Truck Series team will only lead to more fans riding their E-Z-GO vehicles around the campgrounds."

I've driven several different models of E-Z-GO golf carts at my work, along with several of their competitors, and E-Z-GO golf carts are superior.

Source for quotes and Photo Credit: kevinharvickinc.com

Remember that ad campaign by Miller Breweries with the catchy phrase: "It's Miller Time?" Well, for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, "It' Hornaday Time!"

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is coming off of "summer vacation," as Speed TV's Krista Voda called it, prior to the three week hiatus of the series.

The series is heading into its Summer stretch, were they will be racing for the next 10 weeks. It's also, historically, the part of the season were Hornaday dominates.

But this season will be a little different: gone are Memphis Motorsports Park and the Milwaukee Mile, and his competitors are breathing a little easier, as "Horn" dominated both tracks with a combined total of five wins.

We will see the trucks race at a variety of unique tracks. You have the short ones: Iowa, O'Reilly Raceway Park, Gateway, Bristol. You have some longer ones added in: Nashville, Chicagoland, Kentucky. Also, the in-between ones: New Hampshire. And finally, add in the newbies: Pocono and Darlington.

For Horn, heading into this stretch of the season, he sits fourth in the points and about 170 points behind series points leader Todd Bodine.

Last season during the Summer stretch, Horn won five races in a row. He went from a 27-point deficit to a 216-point advantage, and later went on to win the title.

This season, he'll have to leapfrog not only Bodine, but Aric Almirola and Timothy Peters in the points.

It will basically be won or lost over this stretch for Horn, championship wise.

The Summer stretch favors the versatile driver, and that's Horn, who has a combined win total at these tracks of 12, while Bodine has just one, and neither Almirola or Peters have recorded one win.

Even more telling is the overall Loop Data Statistics that have been taken since 2005, which make Bodine's 170-point lead look like nothing for him to overcome.

At these upcoming tracks, Horn has a Driver Rating of 115.4 percent, an Average Running Position of 6.8, 549 Fastest Laps Run, a Laps in the Top-15 percentage of 87.6, and a Pass Differential (passes minus times passed) of plus 137 in 33 races.

While Bodine does have some strong stats, they are nowhere as good as Horn's. Bodine has a Driver Rating of 98.2 percent, and an Average Running Position of 9.5.

Now Peters has run 24 races at the upcoming 10 tracks, has a Driver Rating of 75.8 percent, and an Average Running Position of 17.5.

Almirola has run 18 races at the upcoming 10 tracks, has a Driver Rating of 79.7 and an Average Running Position of 14.8.

True, it's not really fair to compare them to Horn, since he has the advantage of having run 33 races. However, even tweaking his numbers by comparing only the same number of races they've run, and you'd end up with similar numbers to what he currently has.

So you can see why the Summer stretch favors Horn, and whether or not he capitalizes on this 10-race stretch or not.

Kevin Harvick Inc. has also been working hard in the shop building new trucks for Horn to race in over the stretch, also preparing trucks for the upcoming races and worked on a game plan out for him.

We'll just have to tune in the next 10 weeks to find out, but one thing's for sure: "Wily Old" Horn is ready to get back to racing.

After all, "It's Hornaday Time."

Photo Credit: kevinharvickinc.com

Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Ron Hornaday Jr. achieved another first in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with an ESPY nomination in the Best Driver category.   

For me as a fan, it's totally awesome to see happen, just look at what Hornaday did in 2009, and it's so richly deserved.

Perhaps fellow competitor David Starr said it the best. "With all the various motorsports and drivers that could have been selected, it's great for our series that a driver is included."

It's huge. The ESPN ESPY awards are the sporting world's Oscars, and this gives the series exposure to a huge nationwide audience. One that might just add new fans to the series' ever-growing fanbase and higher ratings for Speed TV.

"I was really shocked when I got the call," said Hornaday.

"This is a pretty cool thing. I am really honored to be nominated with drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Dario Franchitti, and Tony Schumacher. All these guys are great drivers and I am honored that they would even consider me."

Hornaday's a 52 years young legend, that just goes against the norm, and like fine wine, just gets better with age.

He's a second-generation driver from southern California who followed in his Dad's (Ron Sr.) footsteps, racing on the local short tracks all the way to NASCAR.

Horn's raced in all three of NASCAR's top-tier series, and raced for some of NASCAR's best owners: Dale Earnhardt Sr., Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress, and Kevin and Delana Harvick.

He raced for his idol, A.J. Foyt in the Sprint Cup, but it was in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series that he found a happy home and holds just about every record in the series.

Throughout his career, Hornaday and his wife Lindy have always helped young racers from NASCAR at the local short track that come over asking him for advice, be it working on their cars to pointers on racing a certain track. It doesn't matter. His house is always open and available to them, and it was one of those relationships that led to his current ride.

Back in 2004, it looked like Horn's career was over, but Kevin Harvick never forgot how he had let him live with them: sleeping on a couch and treated like he was family.

Harvick paid his friend back by offering Horn a ride in trucks with his KHI team, and the rest is history.

Here are some amazing statistical numbers that Horn compiled in 2009 on his way to his fourth title and another first achievement for the series.

Horn started the season by finishing no worse than seventh in the first six races and even picked up his first win of the season at Charlotte. In 23 races of 25, he qualified sixth or better, picked up four pole awards, and started seven times from the front row.

Horn, in a five-race stretch from mid-June at Milwaukee till early August at Nashville, won five consecutive races. He equaled a mark NASCAR hasn't seen happen in 38 years, putting his name with Richard Petty and Bobby Allison, who did it in 1971.

What made it impressive was that he picked up his first wins at Kentucky and Nashville, repeated at Memphis, and broke in a brand-new chassis twice during the streak.

Point-wise over that stretch, Horn went from a 27-point deficit to a 216 point advantage, and it was just "taking care of business" over the remaining races. Horn would also achieve another first in the series, being named the Third Quarter Driver of the Year.

Over the 25 race season he compiled six wins, 15 top-fives, 20 top-10 finishes, four poles, and led 1,091 laps en route to his fourth title.

In his 13 year career in the series, Horn has compiled 259 races, 45 wins, 127 top-fives, 184 top-10 finishes, 25 poles, led 8,971 laps, has an average start of 8.3, an average finish of 8.8, and logged 43,354 miles in the series.

"He has set the bar so high for all of us in the sport and deserves to be recognized for his great accomplishments, especially after last season," said Carmichael.

I've been busy on ESPN voting for Horn, even have the ballot link set-up on my computer as a shortcut and it would be awesome to see him win the ESPY.

Anyone can vote, but you have to register with ESPN first, and then can you vote for each of the fan voting categories in just a couple of minutes.

ESPN will hold the ESPY awards on Wednesday July 14th, at 9PM and it will be televised on ESPN for the first-time since 2003.

Photo Credit: kevinharvickinc.com

NASCAR driver and co-owner Kevin Harvick along with representatives from JEGS High Performance will be making a special announcement at 2PM on Wednesday, June 23rd at the JEGS Race Shop in Delaware, Ohio.

It will mean one of three things, either Harvick and wife Delana are buying into a NHRA team, they are set to announce JEGS as Ron Hornaday Jr. sponsor on the No. 33 or they will be sponsoring both KHI entries in the Trucks and it's lone Nationwide Series's entry in 2011.

Of course Hornaday, would start being sponsored by JEGS the remainder of the 2010 season and share the sponsorship with the eight races that already are sponsored.

KHI just lost Longhorn to the new FDA tobacco rule. They have half of the 16 remaining truck races sponsored and still looking for more sponsors for the four-time champion.

So the latter makes a lot of sense, but it's no secret that Happy is a NHRA fan and has been interested in starting or buying into a existing team.

All of KHI's sponsor deals end in 2010, so it makes sense that JEGS would jump into NASCAR in it's two lower series.

Legendary Motorsports announcer Paul Page, the voice of the NHRA will be the master of ceremonies and mediator for the event.

While there is still the chance that JEGS could become Harvick's new Cup sponsor, but that's doubtful since RCR wasn't named in a release about this event.

The race shop, located next to JEGS headquarters, has been in lock down the last couple of months and only a few employees have access to the facility.

It would be cool to see the long standing NHRA sponsor, make the leap to NASCAR as not only Horn's sponsor but also affiliating themselves with KHI.

The No. 33 truck will look sharp with the JEGS paint scheme of a yellow body, and with black trim.

We'll know for sure which scenario will happen with JEGS and KHI on the 23rd.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be racing Saturday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway.

It's race No. nine of 25. We'll see a completely different race this year, as Roush-Fenway Racing has dominated, winning five races, and not one previous winner is in the field.

Here are my top five picks, along with my Raybestos Rookie of the Race pick and my sleeper pick.

1) Kyle Busch

In four races at the track, Busch has compiled three top-fives, four top-10 finishes, won one pole, led 117 laps, has an average start of 3.5, and an average finish of 3.2.

Busch will have one of his Roush chassis that's been converted to a Toyota Tundra. He will be fast and should qualify well.

He will either dominate or be amongst the leaders, and, if not already leading, he'll battle hard for the win.

2) Mike Skinner

In seven races at the track, Skinner has compiled four top-fives, five top-10 finishes, won two poles, led 67 laps, has an average start of 5.3, and an average finish of 7.3.

Skinner looks rejuvenated with making a crew chief after Charlotte. He should have "Old Faithful", his nickname for his favorite chassis, be fast, and will need to qualify well.

He should be in the lead pack, challenge for the win, and battle hard for the best possible finish.

3) Todd Bodine

In five races at the track, Bodine has compiled two top-fives, four top-10 finishes, led 48 laps, has an average start of 11.0, and an average finish of 7.4.

Bodine is another who should have a good Toyota Tundra, be fast, and needs to qualify well.

He should be amongst the top-five most of the race, could challenge for the win, and try pit strategy to steal the win or settle for the best possible finish.

4) Ron Hornaday Jr.

In six races at the track, Horn has compiled four top-10 finishes, led 13 laps, has an average start of 11.0, and an average finish of 14.3.

Horn will have a very stout Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet, be fast, and qualify top-five.

He should be amongst the lead pack, lead some laps, and with a good truck, he could challenge for the win or settle for another top-five.

Crew chief Doug George could be an asset for him if the race comes down to pit strategy, since he's won with Kyle Busch using pit strategy.

5) Matt Crafton

In eight races at the track, Crafton has compiled two top-fives, two top-10 finishes, led two laps, has an average start of 14.6, and an average finish of 16.6.

Crafton will have a really good KHI Cheverolet, be fast, and should qualify in the top-five.

He should run the majority of the race in the top-five, be close to the leaders, and in the closing laps will battle hard for a top-five finish.

My Raybestos Rookie of the Race pick: Justin Lofton

Back in 2008, Justin Lofton picked up his first ARCA win at Michigan, running a flawless race, and he's my rookie pick this week.

Lofton knows how to get around Michigan, but will need to qualify well, should run close to the top-10, and battle hard for a top-10 finish.

My Sleeper pick: Elliott Sadler

Sadler is making his debut start at Michigan in the trucks. He'll have a stout KHI Cheverolet, be fast, and should qualify top-10.

He should lead some laps, with a good truck he could challenge for the win and hopefully, he can turn his luck around with a good finish in the top-five.

Timothy Peters, Johnny Sauter, and Aric Almirola just missed the cut.

Austin Dillon, Ricky Carmichael, James Buescher, and David Starr could also be factors in the race.

I'm not a big fan of the MIS track, but I have to say that the Truck Series runs 100 Laps/200 Miles, and that's the perfect distance at this track.

Ron Hornaday Jr. will have Longhorn on his No. 33 at Michigan for Saturday afternoon's VFW 200, and it's the final race for Longhorn in the Truck Series.

Goodbye Longhorn

It's a bummer to see Longhorn Moist Snuff, part of the Swedish Match Company, have to leave due to the new FDA law and it's been an awesome ride with them.

They've sponsored Horn in 19 races; he's won four times with Longhorn brand on the truck, and they won the 2009 Championship together at Homestead.

Not many sponsors get the chance to achieve what Swedish Match did in such a short period.

So thank you, Swedish Match with your Longhorn brand, for being a sponsor with Kevin and Delana Harvick's KHI race team, and putting your brand on Horn's No. 33.

You guys are the best, sponsor-wise, and I just wish this relationship didn't have to end so soon.

Longhorn still has one more race with Horn, in the Nationwide Series at Road America, the June 19 Bucyrus 200 presented by Menards.

Elliot Sadler will be back in the No. 2 Grange Insurance with Copart.com and I've heard it's a pretty cool paint scheme.

Horn has made six starts at MIS. His best finish is seventh, and it's one of eight current tracks at which he has yet to win.

Sadler will be making his first start in the series at MIS. He's excited about it and it's one of his favorite tracks.

"I've had a tough last four years, so to be able to come back and run up front and compete with these guys is so much fun and it's great for my confidence," Sadler said.

"I've never really been able to get a handle on Michigan," Hornaday said.

Last year, Horn got into a accident early in the race and rebounded to finish seventh. He probably could've had a better finish had the wreck not happened.

"I'm looking forward to going back there with Doug [George]. He ran well with Kyle [Busch] last year, so I'm hoping he knows just what the truck needs to go fast."

Sadler will be racing chassis No. 045 this weekend; it's a brand new chassis making it's maiden voyage.

He'll have a really good truck, be fast, and should qualify top-10 or better.

Sadler will lead some laps; with a good truck he could challenge for the win and hopefully, he can turn his luck around.

Since his last two starts, he's had tire problems that took good finishes and turned them into bad days.

Horn will be racing chassis No. 44 this weekend. In it's last start, he finished third at Charlotte.

He not only has a stout truck at Michigan, but the best truck, and will have a shot to end his 19-race winless streak.

Horn should qualify top five, be amongst the lead pack, lead some laps, and with a good truck he could challenge for the win.

If it turns into pit strategy, then he has the edge with crew chief Doug George—since he's won with Busch using pit strategy.

But it's also a track where he could think big picture if the win isn't possible, and just settle for a top-five finish.

It should be a good day for Horn and Sadler, with both drivers battling for the win or for top-five finishes.

Sources for quotes and Photo Credit: kevinharvickinc.com

This week the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be racing Friday night under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway.

It's race No. eight of 25. The trucks are always exciting on the very fast multi-grooved oval and its three wide racing action.

Here are my top five picks for the race, along with my Raybestos Rookie of the Race pick, and my sleeper pick.

1) Todd Bodine

In 11 races at the track, Bodine has compiled five wins, eight top-fives, eight top-10 finishes, won one pole, led 199 laps, has an average start of 8.6, and an average finish of 10.7.

Bodine will have his favorite chassis this week. It'll be wicked fast and should qualify well inside the top-10.

He should be fast, and can even dominate the race, but if not, he'll work his way to the lead and battle for the win in closing laps.

2) Ron Hornaday Jr.

In 14 races at the track, Hornaday has compiled two wins, five top-fives, nine top-10 finishes, led 631 laps, has an average start of 8.6, and an average finish of 10.7.

Horn will have another stout Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet, be very fast, and will collect his first pole at Texas.

He should lead some laps and could challenge for the win, but it's a track where he could pick up some point positions.

We could see him opted for the best possible finish, if his truck isn't good in the closing laps and thinking of the big picture regarding the title.

3) Mike Skinner

In 12 races at the track, Skinner has compiled six top-fives, 10 top-10 finishes, won five poles, led 458 laps, has an average start of 5.1, and an average finish of 6.1.

Skinner will have his oldest chassis, be wicked fast and will need to qualify well.

He's racing at one of his better tracks and still looking for his first win, but should be tough and with a good truck late in the race.

Skinner could challenge for the win or battle for a top-five finish.

4) Johnny Sauter

In three races at the track, Sauter has compiled two top-10 finishes, led 42 laps, has an average start of 14.4, and an average finish of 7.7.

Sauter will have another stout KHI Chevrolet, be very fast, and should qualify for the top-10.

He's usually very good on 1.5 mile tracks, could very well lead some laps early, be racing amongst the lead pack most of the race and could challenge for the win or battle hard for a top-five finish.

5) Johnny Benson Jr.

In 10 races at the track, Benson has compiled six top-fives, six top-10 finishes, led 16 laps, has an average start of 9.0 and an average finish of 11.9.

Benson will have a really good Busch hand me down Tundra, be fast and needs to qualify well.

He should run the majority of the race in the top-10 and it'll depend on how well he can race using Busch's set-up, whether he'll challenge for the win or points race for a top-five finish.

My Raybestos Rookie of the Race pick is : Austin Dillon

While Lofton has definitely been running better, this week it came down to Dillon having two top-10 finishes on 1.5 mile tracks versus none for Lofton.

Dillon will have another fast KHI hand-me down, will probably qualify top-five, and I figure he'll pick up another top-10 or get his first career top-five finish.

My Sleeper Pick is: Ken Schrader

He's ran one race at Texas, started 12th, and picked up an eighth place finish.

It's cool that Schrader's back running in the truck series with KHI. He'll have a wicked fast truck, should qualify top-12 and pick up a top-10 finish.

Aric Almirola, Matt Crafton, and Timothy Peters just missed the cut.

David Starr, James Buescher, Ricky Carmichael, and Jason White could all factor in as well.

I've always loved the trucks at TMS, it's the fastest 1.5 mile track the series visits and multi-grooved, it leads to some very exciting racing.

Photo Credit: motorracingnetwork.com

New government regulations on smokeless tobacco sponsorships will cost two teams their sponsors on June 22, and it comes at a bad time for both.

Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Ron Hornaday will lose the Longhorn Moist Snuff from his No. 33, and Baker-Curb Racing's Greg Biffle will lose Red Man Moist Snuff from his No. 27.

The Food and Drug Administration has new rules further restricting and limiting the ways tobacco companies can market their products.

Effective June 22, cigarette and smokeless tobacco sponsorships can no longer be included at any athletic, musical, social, cultural, or team-related events.

Hornaday's last race with the Longhorn sponsorship will be the June 12 VFW 200 at Michigan International Speedway.

The sponsorship deal with Longhorn in 2010 was for nine races, and Michigan will be the ninth race of the season.

Last year, Longhorn was on for 10 races with Hornaday, one with Harvick, but spread throughout the season, and they won the championship.

KHI owners Kevin and Delana Harvick have known about the pending new regulations for 18 months now and are still looking for sponsorship for half of the remaining 16 races.

They'll have Karl Chevrolet at Iowa and Tide at Bristol. The rest of the sponsored events still have to be announced—presumably they're all one-race deals.

Regardless of whether or not the Horn's No. 33 has a sponsor, it will race, but it would be nice to see Hunt's Brother Pizza, Best Buy, Rheem, or even the Veterans of Foreign Wars pick up some races with the wily veteran.

Source: jacksonville.com

Ron Hornaday Jr. will have Longhorn Moist Snuff on his No. 33 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, for Friday night's NC Education Lottery 200.

While any track Horn has won at is his favorite, CMS, truth be told, actually is one of his favorite venues. He's won two of the last three races at the track.

He and Rowdy Busch are the only multiple winners in trucks at CMS.

Horn will be trying to end his 17-race winless streak. He'll have his Doug George-led crew bring their A game, and they'd love to get another win at Kevin Harvick Inc.'s home track.

He's known as the "King of Restarts" in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for his skill on restarts, and it's one of his many skills he's acquired racing a truck.

Horn's a 51 years young, wily veteran who owns 70 percent of the records in trucks, and just continues to rewrite it and adds new feats to add to the Truck Series record book.

It's a skill that he may just put to good use Friday night on a late caution for the win.

One thing to remember is that Horn and his No. 33 Longhorn team were the best on the 1.5-mile tracks last year.

Horn will be racing chassis No. 44 at Charlotte—it's a brand new and produced excellent numbers in the wind tunnel.

He won two of six races last season racing new chassis, and his owner Kevin Harvick won five of six races in new chassis over the past two seasons.

Horn should have another stout Chevrolet, be wicked fast, and should qualify top five—or we could see him pick up his first pole at CMS.

He should lead some laps, spend the majority of the race racing in the top five, and in the cosing laps will battle hard for the win.

We could see his crew chief, Doug George, use pit strategy and bring Horn to pit road on a late caution. Get four feel-good's (Goodyear) tires, then just charge his way to the lead and the win.

Photo Credit: kevinharvickinc.com

Wooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Let's get ready to rummmmmble......

Ladies and Gentlemen, in this corner, we have the challenger Rowdy Busch, AKA "Wild Thing", in the number 18 Z-Line/Toyota Tundra Toyota.

Making his way to the ring, we have the defending race winner Ron Hornaday Jr., AKA "the Professor", in the number 33 Longhorn Moist Snuff Chevrolet.

This is the rubber match for bragging rights in their Charlotte Motor Speedway rivalry.

They've won four of the last five Truck races at the track with two wins a piece.

Only Matt Crafton in 2008 was able to crash the Rowdy-Horn party and break through for his first career win in the series.

Busch's two wins come in a Chevrolet Silverado. Hornaday's two Charlotte wins also saw him hoist the championship trophy at season's end.

Both drivers have some advantages. Busch will have his Director of Competition Rick Ren to help him prepare a wicked fast Tundra and help from Toyota.

Horn will be driving a Silverado, the dominating manufacture at CMS. He'll be breaking in a brand new KHI chassis and he has crew chief Doug George who knows a few tricks from Rowdy to tweak it better.

Who's going to win this epic battle?

Who will celebrate the win in the NC Education Lottery 200?

You will just have to tune into Speed TV on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. for the Set-Up show with Krista for more trivia on this rivalry and then the 8 p.m. race start.

All I can tell you is that I'll be cheering for Horn, but it will be exciting watching these two battle fender on fender for 134 laps and bragging rights.

And I seriously doubt we'll see anyone rain on the Rowdy-Horn party that will take place in victory lane depending on which one wins.

It'll be a clean, fair fight and the one with the best truck in the closing laps will win.

Photo Credit: kevinharvickinc.com