Johnson and Harvick once camped out at Camp Hornaday: The last vestige of it rests in Lindy Hornadays office, across the street from the house where it became a peculiar NASCAR artifact. One 17 years in the making. The solitary remaining component of a hard-used and well-worn sectional couch from Ron and Lindy Hornadays former Lake Norman home is the River Styx and George Washington Slept Here all at once. But more importantly it symbolizes the opportunity and the friendship the Hornadays afforded not only to young race car drivers named Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick in 1997, but the scores of other wayfaring dreamers the former Truck series champion and his wife have made in the place the racing community fondly refers to as Camp Hornaday. That Johnson, a six-time Sprint Cup champion, and Harvick, newly minted with his first title at NASCARs highest level in November, at one point lounged, slept or passed out on that couch has made it a talisman in black leather for the latest generation of drivers and mechanics with NASCAR ambitions that followed them in the Hornadays home. Its newest layer of historic patina has made it a source of amusement for its owners. And perhaps one day, a resident of the Hall of Fame in Charlotte. Theyve made our couch really famous because now everybody wants to sleep on it, Lindy Hornaday said with a laugh. I talked to [historian] Buz [McKim] from the Hall of Fame. He was coming to my house to get some stuff of Rons and I was teasing him about the couch. He said, You know we really ought to start thinking about that couch. Simply put, Ron and Lindy Hornaday love people. They must. They better. Thats the only explanation for how they not only endured by enjoying life in a 969-square-foot home in California with two kids, three guests, three dogs, two birds, a goat, a pig, a rabbit and numerous cats, all with one bathroom, before they relocated to North Carolina to better pursue Rons racing career in the 1990s. When they migrated to Charlottes suburbs in Mooresville and bought a comparatively spacious 2,400-square-foot spread on a cove on Lake Norman, Ron Hornaday Jr. could more easily indulge the habit of inviting folks out to visit, lounge or bunk down. And he did. Hornadays place was always a place where everybody felt like they had a connection to him, Harvick said. Now living across the street, with more space and a bigger dock, theres even more room for the Hornadays to connect. Chasing money, Hornaday said, for the first time in his career and without solid plans to race in the NASCAR Truck series this season, he busies himself with other racing ventures. His wife has opened her own business, and although they still take in guests, they miss the din of the heyday of Camp Hornaday. Though Lindy Hornaday has occasionally scolded her husband, Ron said, for his revolving door of a liberal guest policy, the denizens of their commune credit her equally with fostering a family environment that keeps old friends returning for years, grilling out and telling stories after races, pulling up their boats at the dock on weekends just to see who will stop by. I love Ron, but Lindys the glue, the real champion of that house, Johnson said. Johnson came to camp as a 21-year-old off-road racer from El Cajon, California, seeking his next career arc, working any angle I could, he said, before Hendrick Motorsports agreed to fund a dirt Late Model car for him. Hed previously met Hornaday at a Chevrolet autograph session in Detroit, was invited -- of course -- to bunk at the lake if he decided to relocate to NASCARs hub, and bought a one-way ticket for Charlotte once the Hendrick offer came. Johnson stayed with the Hornadays for roughly four months in 1997 before they helped him find his first house. Having won the first of four Truck championships in 1996 -- his most recent in 2009 with Harvicks now-defunct team -- Hornaday wielded the cachet to make connections for both of the young Californians. Hornadays endorsement had weight as Richard Childress moved to sign Harvick to his Nationwide program. Lindy still calls them her boys and coos as much about how they have grown into doting fathers as about them being champions of NASCARs top series.(see full article at ESPN)(12-31-2014)
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 22:55:24 +0000
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