Points-race leader Hornaday plans to play it safe at LVMS

Another typical race week for veteran Ron Hornaday.

He'll spend a couple of hours tonight signing autographs and smiling for pictures at Camping World, his sponsor. The native of Palmdale, Calif., has signed enough hero cards in a 13-year NASCAR career to replenish a harvested forest.

He knows the routine better than a Chippendale dancer.

On Friday night, he'll serve as grand marshal for a monster truck race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hornaday's only apprehension before arriving in Las Vegas midweek for Saturday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race was whether he's expected to drive one of the towering monster trucks that make his No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado racer look like a Tonka toy.

"I don't think I'll be doing that," he said of driving a monster truck at the speedway's dirt track.

Hornaday's four grandchildren might love watching him manhandle one of the big trucks. It might be the only time he's had to disappoint them.

"The last thing I need to do is to crash it and show up for the race on Saturday in a back brace while we're running for the championship," Hornaday said.

He's unwilling to add anymore variables to an already-challenging formula he must solve in order to continue as the series points leader after the Smith's Las Vegas 350 on the speedway's 1.5-mile tri-oval.

The intensity will mount with each of the race's 146 laps and 219 miles, as it will through each of the last seven races of the season.

He leads Toyota's Mike Skinner, another truck veteran and former champion, by 29 points. Each has won four times this year, but Skinner is the reigning champ of the Las Vegas race.

Hornaday intends to be ready when he starts Saturday's 6 p.m. race on a track that has denied him a truck victory in six previous tries.

The 49-year-old former race-car builder won truck championships in 1996 and 1998. He's won a record 33 times since joining the series for its inaugural season in 1995 despite spending 2000-04 competing in the NASCAR Cup and Busch series.

Hornaday drives for Kevin Harvick Inc., which is owned by Cup driver Kevin Harvick and wife DeLana. The Harvicks have fielded cars for Hornaday this year in the Busch series four times, producing two top-10 finishes.

Harvick made a commitment to Hornaday that the truck program would be improved after he finished seventh in series points a year ago with two wins and a fifth-place finish at Las Vegas.

"You're only as good as your equipment," said Hornaday, who has three top-three finishes at Las Vegas in trucks. "Kevin and DeLana haven't been afraid to spend money to help win this championship."

Harvick, who grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., brought in crew chief Rick Ren, who revamped the No. 33 crew, and with support from Chevrolet refined its truck bodies with data obtained in costly wind-tunnel testing.

It's paid off. Hornaday's truck is one of only two Chevys in the top 10.

"Rick brought in a bunch of new kids (on the crew) who are gung-ho. They believe in me and believe in Rick," Hornaday said. "I want to get Kevin and DeLana their first championship as owners."