Hornaday began racing in go-karts and motorcycles before moving to stock cars at Saugus Speedway. In 1992 he won his first championship in the NASCAR Winston West Series as well as the Most Popular Driver award, then repeated as Southwest champion in 1993, becoming the only driver in series history to win back-to-back titles until Jim Pettit achieved the feat in 2004 and 2005.
That same 1992 season Hornaday made his Winston Cup debut at the Save Mart 300K, starting seventeenth and finishing 32nd. Further Cup appearances followed at Phoenix in 1992 and 1993.
Hornaday signed with Dale Earnhardt Inc. to drive the No. 16 Chevrolet when the Super Truck Series launched. In its inaugural season he won six races and four poles, finishing third in points. The next year, running under NAPA Auto Parts sponsorship, he won four races and his first series championship. In 1997 he posted seven wins but finished fifth in points. He reclaimed the title in 1998 with six wins and sixteen top-fives from 27 starts.
In 1999 Hornaday won the 100th race in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington, collecting a bonus for being one of four entrants who had competed in every truck race since the series began.
After a period racing primarily in the NASCAR Busch Series from 2000 to 2004 — during which he won at Nazareth Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2000 and recorded 17 top-tens with Richard Childress Racing in 2003 — Hornaday returned to full-time Truck competition in 2005 with Kevin Harvick Inc. He won at Atlanta that year and took two victories in 2006 at Mansfield and Kentucky while running largely unsponsored.
With Camping World backing in 2007, Hornaday won multiple races and, on November 16, 2007, overcame a 29-point deficit over Mike Skinner to claim his third Craftsman Truck Series championship.
His fourth title came in 2009, a season that included a memorable win at the Milwaukee Mile on June 20 — his 51st birthday — and a run of five consecutive victories from July through August that tied Richard Petty and Bobby Allison as the only drivers in NASCAR history to accomplish that feat. The championship clinch before the season finale made him the first driver since Greg Biffle in 2000 to sew up the title early, and placed him alongside Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jimmie Johnson as the only drivers to win four or more championships across NASCAR's three major series.
In 2011 Hornaday won four races but was mathematically eliminated from the championship at Texas when Kyle Busch intentionally rammed his truck under caution, pushing it head-on into the wall. Busch received a suspension from the NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup races that weekend.
In 2013 Hornaday was fined $25,000, lost 25 points, and was placed on probation after intentionally wrecking rookie Bubba Wallace under caution at Rockingham to retaliate for earlier contact.
His brief 2015 Sprint Cup return with The Motorsports Group in the No. 30 Chevrolet ended after failing to qualify at Martinsville and Bristol following an early exit at Daytona due to a broken rear gear.
On April 8, 2010, Palmdale declared Ron Hornaday Jr. Day in his honor and named a roundabout in the Palmdale Auto Mall after him. On May 24, 2017, Hornaday was announced as a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2018, becoming the first Truck Series driver to receive that honor.
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