For the past three seasons, the rivalry and
competition between Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague has been intense, and a riveting,
driving force in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Hornaday, the series' only two-time
champion, has sandwiched championships in 1996 and 1998 around Sprague's title in 1997.
In this column, Hornaday and Sprague -- who share a healthy respect for one another both
on and off the race track -- share their thoughts on a variety of topics, "face to
face."
How do you see the points race ending up?
JACK SPRAGUE: "I definitely wish (Ron) was in the mix. There isn't
anybody out there I like racing any more than I like racing him. At any point in time on
the track if I find him and we're together, that's the most fun I have. As far as how I
see the points going down, I don't have any idea. Unfortunately, we blew up at Indy, and
that's very uncharacteristic of this deal. It's just one of those things you can't
control. You know, that hurt us pretty bad. There's just no telling. Last year Ron and I
seemed to swap the points lead back and forth every couple of races. (Greg) Biffle's on a
pretty good hot streak right now. If he continues to do that he's going to be tough. If
things happen as normal and you fall off those streaks, we've got a pretty good shot. All
the guys on the GMAC Chevrolet are working hard, and we've been doing the same things
we've been doing all along. You've got to have a little luck, too, and we haven't had any
this last month.
RON HORNADAY: "I have no idea where we stand in the points, right
now. I knew we were like seventh going into the last race and we ended up crashing. I
haven't even looked at the points. We're just going to go out there and try to win every
race that we can. We've definitely got our program changed around with the trucks, and
we're looking forward to trying to win the next race. We're going to have to (go for wins,
not points). The way it looks right now, we've been getting in wrecks we shouldn't be in
and stuff like that. So I mean we're going to have to act cautiously and these guys are
definitely racing for points and stuff and we're getting in accidents we shouldn't be
in."
After several years in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, what is the neatest
thing about the series, and what is the toughest thing you have had to deal with?
JACK SPRAGUE: "The neatest thing is the growth of this series. When
I first started this thing I didn't know really what to expect. As far as 'racing truck',
it kind of sounded weird. And I tell you, you get in those things, you don't know if
you're sitting in a car or a truck, and the races are great and they're very competitive
and every year it gets more competitive. It's just a lot of fun racing guys like Ron and
Stacy and Dennis Setzer and those guys. You enjoy yourself when you go to the race track
and that's the neatest thing for me. It's a lot of fun.
RON HORNADAY: "The competition level has been the best, and the
WORST has been the competition level. We've had our ups and downs. You know we won the
championship our first year, we come back and crash the gold truck and went downhill from
there. We finished fifth in points. This year we celebrate a championship year with a
(Superman) truck and its been going downhill from there. So I think the special paint
schemes, if you're looking at luck, don't work out too well. It's been a tough year this
year, so I mean it just makes you humble. We're going to have to go out there and do the
best we can and gather what we can this year.
With seven races to go, what tracks remaining on the schedule stick out as tracks
you look forward to, and which stick out as ones you aren't looking forward to?
JACK SPRAGUE: "I don't know. We've run well it seems like at all the
race tracks we have left except Louisville. So I guess Louisville is the one that maybe
I'm dreading the most. The other ones, hopefully we can get the GMAC Silverado competitive
enough where we can win a couple of these things and be alright. But like I said, I think
Chevrolet did a great job, I just don't think they were given what they needed to have to
make things quite even."
RON HORNADAY: "Any race track you go to, it's got different
characteristics. So we're just going to go out there and race the race track and let
everyone else do what they've gotta do. I do not have a favorite race track. Racing's
racing. When the green flag drops the checkered flag drops, I don't really care for saying
(a track's) good or bad. They're all race tracks and you've gotta race the track."
Blk3GM's Dale Earnhardt Site was born on
July 26, 1998 and is owned and maintained by Gary Harris. This site is a
tribute to "NASCAR's Greatest Driver" and his up and coming son. We are
not affiliated with any official Team, Sponsors, Media Group or NASCAR. This site is
solely for entertainment purposes. Information and statistic's on this site have
been collected from various NASCAR related sites on the internet, from Winston Cup Scene,
Newspapers, Television and our personal experience at Winston Cup and Busch Grand National
races. All statistics are believed to be accurate at the time they are updated but
cannot be guaranteed.
