I wonder what previous open wheel invasions of NASCAR must have been like. Somehow- it’s hard to imagine A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Johnny Rutherford being met with the same disdain that the open wheel invasion of 2007 was met with.
Admittedly, many variables were different. For the open wheelers of the 60s, NASCAR was just another side gig. Foyt’s 128 starts and 7 NASCAR wins were spread over portions of 31 seasons. Though Andretti was a Daytona 500 winner, he only made 14 starts in what was once known as the Grand National Series. Rutherford made 35 Cup starts, winning qualifying race #2 (the forerunner of the Gatorade Duel) in 1963 for legendary technical wizard Smokey Yunick. The wave Sam Hornish was a part of was a different animal.
After years of being given the “ugly red-headed step-child” treatment from Formula One
and Indy Car racing fans, many traditional NASCAR fans were all eager to take the “If you think it’s so doggone easy, show it”, not so much to the open wheel drivers, but the open wheel fans. One by one, most of them fell by the wayside- Jacques Villenueve, Dario Franchitti and Patrick Carpentier.
One from that late 2007 group of open wheel invaders remains: Sam Hornish Jr., appropriately hailing from a hometown called Defiance…Ohio, that is.
Samuel Jon Hornish Jr. was born July 2, 1979 in Bryan, Ohio. Though he’s a huge movie buff- owning 350 DVDs- his love of racing started with go-karts at the age of 11. By 1993, Hornish was a member of the World Karting Association, and he won 7 out of 29 races. In 1994, the driver who lists Rick Mears and Danny Sullivan as his racing heroes, began carving out a driving legacy of his own- winning a U.S. and Canadian Grand Championship, plus a U.S. Junior Club championship. The following year, Hornish pulled off a repeat at the U.S. Grand Nationals.
Later, Hornish would race Formula Ford cars, and after that, the Toyota Atlantic Series. While doing so, he would win Rookie of The Year honors in 1999.
The Indy Car racing career of Sam Hornish Jr. set sail in 2000 with PDM
racing. Though he had no wins, he showed a bit of promise with a 3rd place finish. Hornish really took off in 2001, after a move to the Panther racing team. In fact, Sam won his first two races for Panther and grabbed his first championship. He repeated as champion in 2002, beating out Helio Castroneves of Penske Racing as the capper to a season where we won 5 races. Hornish’s season of glory included a thrilling victory over Al Under Jr. by just .0024 seconds.
While 2003 wasn’t nearly as spectacular, Hornish still managed a more than respectable 5th place finish in the standings. The Panther team found itself being passed by as Toyota and Honda got “racier” with their engines, but the Ohioan still managed a win at Kentucky.
Penske snapped up Sam Hornish in 2004. He rewarded the team’s confidence in him by winning his debut race. By now, Honda was pouring it on and the Toyota engines Penske was using couldn’t quite match the Honda power. Hornish was 7th in the final points.
After placing 3rd in points behind Dan Wheldon and Tony Kaanan of Andretti Green Racing in 2005, Sam Hornish Jr. fulfilled the dream of any IRL driver when he won the 2006 Indianapolis 500. Sudden Sam did so in dramatic fashion over Marco Andretti, the first to overtake the lead on the race’s final lap. The margin of victory? A paper thin .0635. He garnered Penske their first series title with 3 more wins along the way- at Richmond, Kansas and Kentucky. The avid motorcycle enthusiast was also honored with the Scott Brayton Award- for best exemplifying the spirit of the late Indy car racer.
Sam Hornish made his NASCAR debut with two Busch Series starts late in 2006, the first at Phoenix. Both starts resulted in wrecks. While continuing to race in IRL in 2007, Hornish ran a partial NASCAR Busch Series schedule with 7 starts.
On the Indy circuit, Hornish finished 5th in the 2007 points with a victory at Texas.
Hornish has achieved about all one can in IRL. He’s the all-time wins leader (19), he’s led a record 3,428 laps, and is the only repeat IRL champion. Seeking new challenges, Hornish began his pursuit of NASCAR Cup glory.
If you saw his qualifying attempts in 2007, you could even see by the way he drove the car that this was a big-time adjustment from running the lighter IRL cars. He looked awkward and he’s been in his share of scrapes, and that not from overly aggressive driving. Hornish cracked the starting grid at Phoenix in November, 2007- finishing 30th. He finished 37th in the season’s finale at Homestead in the #06 Penske car.
The first full season of Sprint Cup competition often proved a bumpy ride for Sam, as he spent most of the year hovering around the dreaded NASCAR version of the “Mendoza Line”- 35th. His best finishes were in non-point races- 7th in Gatorade Duel #1, 2nd in the Sprint Showdown and 7th in the All-Star race. For Hornish, his best “points race” finish was a 13th at the Coca-Cola 600.
While NASCAR’s uncertain economic environment has no doubt caused questions of whether or not he would return to Indy Car racing, Sam Hornish still continues to show that tenacious spirit that earned him the Scott Brayton award. The good news for Hornish is that he was a top 35 driver and Daytona is the sight of another respectable finish for him- 15th in 2008. You may also recall it was his Penske teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch that finished 1-2 in the “Great American Race.”
Sam and his wife Crystal have a young daughter, Addison, and make their home in Napoleon, Ohio. His musical tastes run from rock to hip-hop and his love of cars translates into customizing them, and also to racing radio-controlled cars.
Like just about everyone else in NASCAR, there’s no way to know how this season will play out for him. Whatever happens, give Sam Hornish credit for this: he’s made it much further than many thought, and it would seem if he can smooth out the learning curve, better days will be ahead.
PHOTO CREDITS- Hornish #77 by purduenila, Hornish #6 by Henderson Images, Hornish by Marc_714, and Mr. and Mrs. Hornish by HoosierFan3. More of their photography may be found at flickr.com.
SOURCES: Sam Hornish website, Wikipedia, Sporting News Record & Fact Book- 2007 edition, Yahoo! Sports.
