Ronald Lee Hornaday Jr. (born June 20, 1958) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and businessman.

Hornaday was born in Palmdale, California, and began racing in go-karts and motorcycles early in his career.

[citation needed] He made his Winston Cup debut in 1992 at the Save Mart 300K, where he started 17th but finished 32nd in Bob Fisher's No.

16 RCCA Products/Papa John's Pizza-sponsored Chevrolet C/K owned by Dale Earnhardt, Inc. for the then-start-up Super Truck Series.

In the first season of competition, Hornaday won six races and four poles on his way to a third-place points finish.

The next year, with sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts, Hornaday won four races and the series championship.

At Memphis 200 he celebrated with a burnout, which was unusual at the time, and made team owner Dale Earnhardt angry for risking damaging the powertrain.

Also in 1998, Hornaday made his Busch Series debut, driving four races for ST Motorsports, his best finish an eighth at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

Hornaday came close to a truck victory at Watkins Glen in the 1998 Parts America 150 in which he led all but 12 laps, only to lose the race due to a final-lap penalty for jumping the restart; Hornaday would pull into victory lane post-race only to be told that he had in fact finished fourth.

In 1999, he won the 100th race ran in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history at the Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington.

3 NAPA-sponsored Chevy for DEI's Busch program with Earnhardt moving up to the Cup Series, and he announced that he would do so the following year.

He picked up wins at Nazareth Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park and finished fifth in points, runner-up to Kevin Harvick for Rookie of the Year honors.

Hornaday was noted for his consistency in 2003, as he finished all 34 races and completed all but 30 laps run over the entire season.

At the end of 2004, Hornaday was released in favor of Clint Bowyer, and he returned to the Truck Series full-time.

With sponsorship backing from Camping World, he continued his dominance in the Truck Series in 2007, winning races at two tracks for the first time in his career.

Two weeks later, after a what-should-have-been-a-win-weekend at Mansfield, Hornaday outlasted Kyle Busch to win the AAA Insurance 200 at Dover.

He continued his chase for a third title with a victory at O'Reilly Raceway Park in the Power Stroke Diesel 200, his 17th win on a short track.

On November 16, 2007, Hornaday won his third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship by overcoming a 29-point deficit on Mike Skinner.

On August 1, 2009, he won the Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, tying Richard Petty and Bobby Allison as the only drivers to win five consecutive races in their NASCAR careers.

As a result, Hornaday drove three races in the #2 KHI truck, to help the team catch up in the standings.

By the time he was back in the #33 truck, Hornaday was second in the series being 15 points behind Austin Dillon when he reached the penultimate race of the year at Texas.

In the third race of the season at Rockingham Speedway, Hornaday intentionally wrecked rookie Darrell Wallace Jr. under caution to retaliate for prior contact.

[8] Due to an internal dispute within TSM, Hornaday did not race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, after it was initially reported that all three truck teams would shut down.

On September 13, it was announced that Rheem would partner again with Hornaday at Las Vegas and Texas later that year with NTS Motorsports, the team that had released him in 2013.

On his brief return to Sprint Cup competition and his sudden retirement, Hornaday said in a 2016 interview, "That was helping a team get started and all that stuff.

[13] On May 24, 2017, Hornaday was named in the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2018, becoming the first Truck Series driver to earn this honor.

[14] Before his racing career took off, Hornaday worked at a couple transmission shops and his father's car dealership.