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NASCAR HALL-OF-FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY

January 19, 2018

Ron Hornaday, Jr.

Charlotte, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Ron Hornaday, class of NASCAR 2018 inductee. I will open it up for questions.

Q. Ron, a lot of guys who do well in the lower series like you did think they can make it in Cup or in Truck or XFINITY and a lot fall by the wayside. Did you think you had what it took to do that, or did you come into the sport, into the higher levels of the sport with some doubt or concerns about that?
RON HORNADAY JR.: If they think they can do it, they're wrong. They've got to adapt theirselves every time so they can push theirselves harder. That's how I've always done it. I've never took credit for anything. I've always gave my crew credit because if you didn't have the equipment to drive and drive it to the front, they ain't doing their job. You're only as good as your team, and I really believe that because I worked on my own cars. I've got my own race cars, and you're only as good as the people behind you.

Q. When you were up there, you just seemed so blown away by the moment. It just seems like you're taking this all in. Is there something‑‑ can you explain what it feels like to be the first truck champion to get into the Hall of Fame?
RON HORNADAY JR.: Wow. That's the word, wow. I mean, went there yesterday‑‑ this is kind of unbelievable, especially me dressing up. It's like putting lipstick on a pig. I don't dress up very well. And that's what I meant to say up there. But the whole deal is I got up there yesterday, and I thought I had something really well, and I think I got everybody involved in it. I forgot Chevrolet because every race I've ever won has been in a Chevrolet, and the big series racing. I got there this morning at 9:00 this morning, and it was like‑‑ I walked away, took a deep breath, come back, and I couldn't do it again, and I said, hell with it. When I started seeing my friends and family, something will come to me instead of trying to read this speech off that prompter. I got back to the room, and I've never had an anger deal‑‑ I don't know what it's called in your stomach, but my stomach was turning over so bad to where I was regurgitating air for about four hours, and I finally fell asleep for a while. My wife wanted to go to lunch. I sent her with all the family to lunch, and I finally started thinking about what this really means, and I still didn't know what it meant until I started seeing friends, family, peers, the Hall of Famers, and they just really got me in a different mood, in a different deal. And I did that one sober. Usually I get a couple beers in me before I speak. But that one actually‑‑ so when I got up there, it was like, this is awesome, being a 2018 Hall of Fame. And everybody was telling me to just be yourself, take your time. How can you do that? It's the frigging Hall of Fame. So that was the best part about the whole thing. I had to break the ice just to get somebody to giggle, then I knew I could be on a roll.

Q. Were you aware that you were on Earnhardt Sr.'s radar, or did that just come out of the blue?
KEN SQUIER: Well, I got warned about it from a couple guys down there. Richard said, hey, I talked to Dale, I've already hired Mike Skinner, I talked to Dale about you, that you're one of the hot dogs out here, and Dale and I had a couple incidents at Phoenix. I actually put our Winston West car in a Cup race, and then he ran into me once, and I had to pay him back a little bit, so I said, hey, guys, look, I put that tire mark on Earnhardt's car, I did that. I knew I was a tough, rugged type and I don't take no crap. Hopefully that winter heat set him off sitting there, instead of him mowing the grass and dodging fans like he usually does with his lawnmower, he watched that winter heat down there, and I think that's what really took it off because the media with the hype it had down there with the Truck Series and ESPN and everybody, it really helped everybody out, California, the Biffles and myself and everybody else.

Q. Can you just explain why you've been so blown away even since May when your name was called? Is there a reason behind why this all just seems crazy to you?
RON HORNADAY JR.: I don't understand the question. I mean‑‑

Q. Is there some reason that you're having kind of an out‑of‑your‑skin moment that you would be the guy‑‑
RON HORNADAY JR.: There's so many great racers out there. Why would they‑‑ you know, Sprague has won just as many races as I have until the end when he quit, championships and everything else, and hopefully it's just not my couch, because we've opened my arms to everybody else. I said it the best when I came out here in '95. We've had people live at our house before in California, crew members and all that stuff stay with us.
But Doug, Rob and Richard put me on their couch for about the first year, year and a half, and it's easier to pay somebody back when‑‑ Jimmie, I met him at a Chevrolet function, he was an off‑road guy and I was doing that, doing‑‑ just getting into the trucks, and he told me he was coming out, and I said, well, don't go out and rent a house or anything, just stay with us, save some money for a couple months and put a down payment on a house because you can buy a house cheaper than you can rent one. That's kind of how our model was with helping all these kids out.
The problem with the couch is, I keep bringing the beer up. They had a room upstairs with a bed, they just couldn't make it up there. They were younger than I was so I was trying to teach them how to drink, too. We've got part of the couch still. It's about this big and still in my man cave.

Q. Those rivalries with Jack Sprague and the other drivers really kind of drive you hard in the '90s and the early millennium to get you here to the Hall of Fame?
RON HORNADAY JR.: You know, I'm not going to comment on that because I did on some NASCAR.com or some NASCAR or other, and I called Jack kind of a whiner, and that's all they put in the whole thing. They didn't listen to the whole thing how I told how Jack Sprague was a hard competitor, he wanted to win, he had to win, he wanted to keep his job on Monday morning when he went into that meeting. Jack Sprague is probably the toughest competitor that didn't care how big you were because I know I could kick his ass, but he didn't care. When he was behind that wheel, nothing could beat him. Mike Skinner, Joe Ruttman, everyone he raced back there, they wanted to make a name for themselves.
When we started this Truck Series, there was 43 trucks that started that field, and we sent eight of them home, and we had every big team owner. When we went into that Monday morning meeting, there was no excuses with my owners, with Dale Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick and everybody. You told them why you didn't do it. You don't explain how you forgot how to do it or whatever.

Q. You drove so many times in the Truck Series; was there any particular special development, technical development you remember? Were the tracks different when you finished your career from when you started?
RON HORNADAY JR.: Oh, yeah, way different. Aerodynamics, when I first started, our trucks weren't going to roll over a mile racetrack and hell they're at Daytona going 200 miles an hour. The aerodynamics, the downforce, what they changed, and the one thing I am so‑‑ let me tell you a quick story real quick. My grandson, we were going through this little parts deal where you buy parts and all that stuff, and there was a display of little race car driving, and he said, Pappy, come on, race me in there. I said, no, I've had enough racing. He goes, well, you won't get hurt on this one. That's the problem with the kids nowadays. If it wasn't for the safety of what NASCAR has done, these kids hitting the wall‑‑ back in the day when you hit a wall, you knew you hit a wall. You went home and you put ice on your ribs, your legs, your foot, your head. So what NASCAR has done with the technology, with the safety equipment, I praise them. I mean, it's so cool.

Q. When you and Skinner and Sprague got into that deal back in '95, '96, it kind of was edging towards being NASCAR's senior tour. Can you see trucks or another series becoming sort of a senior tour for all these drivers that still want to race but really don't have a platform to do it?
RON HORNADAY JR.: It could until them kids come in. Hell, half them kids don't even add up to my age anymore. You guys are going to have to talk to Steve O'Donnell and pry it out of him. We signed a contract last night that I am coming out every time that we're racing, but I told him there's a couple specifics. I can't have the drug test because I'm going to have to take something to keep up with these kids. My body is getting too old to crawl inside these trucks, so make sure you write everything down, don't just take parts of the story when I say that, the drug trust. I'm not a druggie, and I almost got busted for it for taking steroids because my thyroid was out if you all remember that.
Thank you guys for everything you guys have done in my career. Some of it's been bad, some of it's been good, but all you guys, it took a lot of you guys, and the race fans, the booze, the yeas and everything else. So freaking unbelievable to be here at the Hall of Fame with you guys. You guys made my career, thank you, and good night. I'm drinking a Coors Light.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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