HORNADAY UPBEAT ABOUT DARLINGTON.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

For a race car driver, there's probably no better voice to have in your ear than Dale Earnhardt's.

That's just what Ron Hornaday Jr. had in his first visit to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

The former Saugus Speedway champion was making his first start at Darlington for Dale Earnhardt Inc. in the NASCAR Busch Series back in 2000. Earnhardt, working as a spotter, talked Hornaday around the egg-shaped oval and produced an eighth-place finish, more than respectable for the ``Track Too Tough to Tame.''

Hornaday and the Busch Series will be returning to Darlington today. Though Hornaday's finishes at Darlington haven't been as good as that first one, he has plenty of reasons to be encouraged about this Darlington race.

``Darlington is a tough track, but it actually is a lot of fun when you are hooked up,'' Hornaday said. ``My stats don't look very good there, but I have had some good runs at the track but had something break on the car. That's how Darlington is. It can bite you at any time.''

Hornaday, driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevy, is coming off his best run of the season, a ninth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks ago. He is seventh in points and trails series leader Kevin Harvick, a Winston Cup regular who is running a partial Busch Series schedule, by 99 points.

``I am very pleased right now with how good these AC Delco cars have been when we unload them,'' Hornaday said. ``The guys back at RCR do a great job of getting the cars ready for whatever track we are going to. At every track we've been to so far, the car has been good right off the truck. I think that speaks to the kind of equipment that Richard Childress expects his drivers to have. And I think that shows how strong a team we have.''

Despite notching his first top-10 finish of the season, Hornaday has mixed feelings about how his season has started.

``With that said, we really thought we would be better in race trim than we have been,'' Hornaday said. ``We have struggled a little bit with finding the balance and the feel I like. At both Rockingham (N.C.) and Las Vegas, I really had a hard time feeling the nose of the car. (Crew chief) Rick Viers and I went back through the notes and think we may have come across something that will help me feel the car better at Darlington. And that kind of attention to details is what has me so excited about this AC Delco team.

``I just feel like we can win every time out. So we are disappointed that we haven't won yet, but I think that shows just how tough the Busch Series is. It also shows how good this AC Delco team is. We haven't run close to our potential, yet we still have a car that has run in the top five at every race and that is seventh in points.''

--American Le Mans Series: Humidity seems to be the greatest deterrent for the Team Nasamax entry in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the American Le Mans Series season opener that begins today.

Bryan Herta, a Valencia resident and Hart High graduate, tested the LMP- 900 Team Nasamax entry for the first time Monday and Tuesday at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway in preparation for the race.

The Team Nasamax entry, a Cosworth XDE 2.65-liter turbo-charged prototype, is the only car entered in the field that is using bio-ethanol as fuel. Bio-ethanol is a fuel made from agricultural produce.

``The high ambient temperature and particularly high humidity is robbing the engine of power, because the air density is too low,'' said John McNeil, the team's technical and renewables consultant. ``It's hit us harder than expected. Being such new technology with this engine running on bio-ethanol, we have no routines in place yet to adjust to the conditions changing between test sessions from below-zero degrees Celsius to 31 degrees Celsius.''

The car completed 25 laps in Tuesday's 90-minute session, setting a fastest time of 1 minute, 57.540 seconds on the 3.7-mile road course. It was a 1.5-second improvement on Monday's lap times.

``The first two days have been encouraging for what we've learned already,'' said Herta, who will be teamed with drivers Romain Dumas of France and Robbie Stirling of Canada. ``The technology is very new, and to be competing at this level is very good. We'll be making many more improvements in this week and up to Le Mans. If we can just finish the race and prove the reliability of the package, we can work on the speed. The car is comfortable to drive. For me, it's good to get a bit of rust out of the system and to be in competition again.''

Team Nasamax is planning on running in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June in addition to the Sebring race.

THIS WEEKEND'S RACES

NASCAR

Busch Series

darlingtonraceway.com 200

Site: Darlington, S.C.

Schedule: Today, race (FX, 10 a.m.).

Track: Darlington Raceway (egg-shaped oval, 1.366 miles, 25 degrees banking in turns 1-2, 23 degrees in turns 3-4)

Race distance: 200 miles, 147 laps

Last race: Joe Nemechek benefited from Todd Bodine's mistake to inherit the lead, then hung on to win the Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 1. Bodine was leading with 32 laps to go and racing Nemechek side-by-side through turn 4 when he spun out and went sliding through the front stretch grass.

Last year: Jeff Burton became the second Busch driver to lead every lap and first to accomplish the feat at Darlington Raceway after winning the darlingtonraceway.com 200.

Fast facts: Burton has won each of the past three Busch races at Darlington, including the Gatorade 200 last Aug. 31. Mark Martin is the only other driver to win three consecutive Busch races at the track, doing it twice. ... Steve Park crashed and suffered a brain injury in the Busch event at Darlington in September 2001. ... This race was been won from the pole six times. ... Geoff Bodine won the inaugural race in 1982. ... Michael Waltrip holds the fastest winning speed at 138.140 mph in 1992.

Next race: Channellock 250, March 22, Bristol, Tenn.

On the net: www.nascar.com

American Le Mans Series

Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring

Site: Sebring, Fla.

Schedule: Today, race (Speed Channel, 7:30 a.m.)

Track: Sebring International Raceway (3.7-mile road course)

Race distance: 12 hours (timed event)

Cars: Four classes compete in the American Le Mans Series (LMP-900, LMP-675, Grand Touring Sports and Grand Touring)

Next race: Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma, July 27 Infineon Raceway, Sonoma

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Bryan Herta's preparation for the Twelve Hours of Sebring has been hurt by the effect of humidity on his bio-ethanol-fueled car.

Box:

THIS WEEKEND'S RACES (see text)