Ron Hornaday Jr. has partnered with Indiana-based Diamond Chassis.

After 25 seasons in NASCAR, four truck titles and 61 victories on the top four tours, the champ is transitioning to the fabrication side of the sport.

Hornaday, along with wife Lindy, manufactured chassis under Victory Circle for the Southwest Tour prior to moving to North Carolina to race trucks for Dale Earnhardt Inc. when the series debuted. His recent experience with Diamond Chassis’ Ryan Thomas while building cars for Hornaday’s grandson Slater Blickensderfer led to the opportunity.

“I am excited to get back to my roots of chassis building," Hornaday Jr. said in a release. “Prior to living out my dream of driving in NASCAR my wife Lindy and I owned our own Chassis building company in California Victory Circle.

"After meeting Ryan and putting my grandson Slater in a Diamond Chassis I really wanted to figure out a way to go back and start building turn-key winning chassis”.

Generation next

Since 2007, Diamond has produced high-quality chassis – bare bar or turnkey – custom-tailored to each racer’s specifications. Hornaday, along with his son-in-law and veteran Cup crew chief Drew Blickensderfer “will bring new technology and new ideas to the Next Generation Diamond Chassis program,” according to the release. It’s Thomas’ hope to expand Diamond’s reach to the Carolinas.

“I met Ron and his family early last year at a dirt track in Indiana and just took a liking to him,” Thomas said. “I never thought in a million years we would partner up together on building turn-key chassis.

"This is a great day not just for me personally but for the members of Diamond Race Cars employees and drivers.”

While Hornaday, 56, would love to continue racing in the truck series – and would contemplate a farewell tour – nothing has materialized for 2015. Hornaday was as high as second in the truck point standings this season before Turner Scott Motorsports fell apart. In 17 seasons in the truck series, Hornaday posted 51 wins, 158 top-fives and 234 top 10 finishes in 360 starts. He earned 27 poles for an average qualifying effort of 8.8 and an average finish of 10.1.