There's no denying that Ron Hornaday, winner of six Camping World Truck Series races in 2009 -- including a record five in a row, is a unique talent inside the cockpit. But his veteran crew chief, Rick Ren, is the brains behind the operation with an impressive resume all his own.

Ren made history at Nashville, becoming the series' all-time winningest crew chief with 27 victories among five different drivers -- Hornaday (16), Johnny Benson (5), Andy Houston (3), Travis Kvapil (2) and Rick Carelli (1).

“

I build race cars and, having been a driver, when a guy is explaining to me what the thing is doing, I can react.

”

-- RICK REN

Despite Kyle Busch breaking Hornaday's streak at Bristol, Ren is shooting for the seventh victory this season for the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet on Friday at Chicago.

But unlike most championship crew chiefs, Ren can't thank his father or uncle for handing him his first wrench and showing him the finer points of using it. In fact, prior to his senior year in high school, Ren's mechanical abilities were limited to dismantling a bicycle, a skill he learned on his own.

"My dad was the guy who could barely change the oil and put gas in," Ren recalled. "We never had old cars or worked on cars. My extent [with cars] growing up was tearing a bicycle apart. When I got old enough to buy a car, I started with a '55 Chevrolet and started tinkering with it. As soon as I got old enough to drive, one of my buddies took me to the races and I've been doing it ever since. I'm pretty much self-taught."

Ren also trained himself to race and accumulated 130 wins in Late Model dirt cars in the 14 years following high school. He credits his time behind the wheel with his adaptability to a variety of drivers and their idiosyncrasies.

"It [27 wins with five different drivers] just shows you can adapt," said Ren, who led Hornaday to the 2007 Truck Series championship. "You might have guys that are 'A'-personalities and 'B', 'C' and 'Ds', and I adapt to them. I build race cars and, having been a driver, when a guy is explaining to me what the thing is doing, I can react. It doesn't matter that those five guys don't drive the same."

"He used to race cars years ago, so he understands what you're talking about," reigning series champion Johnny Benson, whom Ren guided to five wins and a runner-up points finish in 2006. "If you have that communication and say one thing, and he knows the direction you want to go, it's a lot easier. Rick could probably be successful with many different types of personalities and I think that's what makes him good."

Ren's 34 years of racing experience have allowed him to build quite a database, one that Hornaday teases him about, but which also plays an integral role in the team's unprecedented success.

"He looked like a professor," Hornaday joked. "We went down and tested Daytona for the first time and we wanted to try something and he couldn't figure out how to do it. I said, 'Where's Rick? We've got to go back out.' I walked in the hauler and there's papers scattered everywhere from the floor to the top. He's got seven years' worth of notes trying to find this one little thing he tried that would pick the thing up a half of a tenth."

"I think he is very set in his ways on his approach," Harvick said. "He's got a lot of Truck experience and 100 years' worth of notes. I've never seen a crew chief with so many notes. But there's something to be said for that much detail and I think it definitely shows on the track." (Continued)