HORNADAY EXCELS IN TRUCK SERIES DESPITE CLOUDY FUTURE.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK MOTOR SPORTS

Ron Hornaday Jr. is under contract to drive for Kevin Harvick Inc. for one more year. But unless Harvick's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team gets a sponsor, Hornaday may not have a truck to drive next year.

Harvick, who owns Hornaday's Truck Series team as well as two Busch Series teams, said he is weighing his options.

``We're just kind of evaluating whether we're going to run Busch cars,'' Harvick said. ``We don't have a sponsor on the trucks, so we won't run a truck next year if it doesn't have a full-time sponsor.''

Harvick's Truck Series team has been without a sponsor since the season started. Still, Hornaday has been able to win a race and has moved into the top 10 in points.

Hornaday won the pole and finished third in the Truck Series' most recent race at The Milwaukee Mile last Friday night. Next up is today's race at Kansas Speedway.

But it took some time for Hornaday's team to hit its stride. It switched crew chiefs four races into the season and improved dramatically.

Wally Rogers, who works on Harvick's Busch Series cars, became Hornaday's crew chief for the April 29 race at Gateway International Raceway in Illinois and has posted five top-10 finishes in the past seven races, including a win at Mansfield Motorsports Park in Ohio.

``Well, I don't think you ever know how the chemistry of things are going to work,'' Harvick said. ``It's something to where I think there was a lot of different scenarios that were involved in everything that was going on with the team, and basically we just stopped and just decided to evaluate everything and pretty much start over.''

Hornaday, a former Saugus Speedway champ from Palmdale, has shared driving duties in Harvick's No. 33 Busch Series car with Tony Stewart, Ron Fellows, Aaron Fike and Harvick.

Hornaday's next scheduled start in the Busch Series is July 22 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

Indy Racing League: Valencia's Bryan Herta is coming off his best finish since April and needs another strong outing at Kansas Speedway on Sunday to get his season back on track.

Herta was sixth at Richmond International Raceway two weeks ago. It was his best finish since the Twin Ring Motegi race in Japan on April 22. He was sixth in Japan as well.

``We've been struggling on tracks like Kansas all season and if we are going to turn our season around, we're going to have to do it on tracks like this,'' said Herta, a Hart High of Newhall graduate and driver of the No. 7 Honda-powered entry for Andretti Green Racing. ``I know the guys are working really hard to try and give us better cars on the bigger tracks.''

Herta won the first race of his Indy Racing League career at Kansas Speedway in 2003. He has three career IRL starts at Kansas and knows his way around the track.

``At Kansas, you've got to have a fast race car, good pit stops and you've got to have good strategy,'' Herta said. ``Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll see as much side-by-side racing at Kansas as we've had in the past. Things seemed to have changed a little bit with the cars and we don't seem to be able to do that as much.''

Herta is ninth in points and trails series leader Helio Castroneves of Marlboro Team Penske by 99.

Castroneves won his second pole position of the season at Richmond and the 13th of his career. It ties him with Greg Ray for the most career poles in IRL history.

timothy.haddock(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 boxes

Box:

(1) NASCAR

(2) INDY RACING LEAGUE

- Associated Press