HORNADAY UNSUCCESSFUL IN HIS RETURN TO ATLANTA.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Ron Hornaday Jr. couldn't find his winning touch again at Atlanta Moror Speedway.

After winning his only race of 2005 at Atlanta in March, Hornaday returned last weekend and posted a 21st-place finish, fighting with a loose, poor-handling truck.

``This was a tough day for the GM Goodwrench team,'' said Hornaday, a former Saugus Speedway champion from Palmdale, after the race. ``We had high expectations coming to Atlanta. The truck was loose and it was hard to keep it on the bottom. The nose was floating and it was taking me up the track.''

Despite the poor finish, Hornaday maintained his third-place standing in the Truck Series. With three races to go, Hornaday is 243 points behind Truck Series leader Ted Musgrave.

``At this point we have to have a good finish and score as many points as possible,'' said Hornaday, driver of the No. 6 Chevrolet Silverado for Kevin Harvick Inc. ``There may not be enough time to catch the leader, but we don't want anyone catching us.''

Kyle Busch won the Atlanta race, which ended with a multicar crash on the final lap.

The Trucks are at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. They raced Friday night.

--Indy Racing League: The Indy Racing League will implement a new testing format starting Jan. 1, stressing flexibility in schedules and creating a way for single-car teams to test as much as multicar teams.

In addition, teams with entries in the Infiniti Pro Series, the development league for the IndyCar Series, will have the oppotunity to add test days to their schedules.

The new testing rules allow IndyCar Series teams a maximum of three private testing days. Teams with more than one entry - such as Andretti Green Racing, which has four - will be counted as a single entrant and limited to three test days.

The new policy reduces the number of test days from 12 to eight, but gives teams the freedom to choose when and where they test.

``By allowing our teams to test, we place the value of testing back in the hands of our teams,'' said IRL presidet and chief operating officer Brian Barnhart. ``The teams have the flexibility to choose when and where they test, which will help maintain the competitive balance of the IndyCar Series as well as allow them to contain the costs of racing by reducing the number of testing days we will have in 2006.''

IndyCar Series entrants who also field Infiniti Pro Series entries can earn up to three extra testing days. For each car a team enters in the Infiniti Pro Series, a extra day of testing will be alotted to the IndyCar Series team.

There will also be two open road course test days and one open oval test day. The road course days are March 1-6 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the oval test day is June 22 at Richmond International Raceway.

Honda and Toyota will be allowed a single day of manufacturing testing for full-time teams that use their engines.

Honda Performance Development is based in Santa Clarita.

The IndyCar Series season opens March 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The Associated Press reported that Team Penske, which fields cars for drivers Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio Castroneves, will switch engines in 2006.

Team Penske will use Honda engines in place of the Toyota engines it has been using for the past two years.

Honda and Toyota will be the only two engine manufacturers in the IndyCar

Series in 2006. Toyota is leaving the IRL series after 2006, leaving Honda as the only engine manufacturer thereafter.

Honda is committed to supllying engines to IRL teams until 2009.