Article published June 30, 2009
Hornish continues to build momentum
By MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
It was about 18 months ago when Sam Hornish Jr. went full-time into the business of racing stock cars.
He kept his agenda modest - put in as much time as possible to hasten the learning process, then become a competitive member of the Sprint Cup Series. Eventually, he wanted to start talking about top-10 finishes and, at some point, victories.
In the middle of just his second season in the ultra-competitive Cup Series, Hornish appears to be pushing closer to that ultimate goal - hoisting the winner's trophy in Victory Lane.
The Defiance native and three-time champion in the IndyCar Series was in the same neighborhood as the race leaders on Sunday when he took his No. 77 Penske Racing Dodge Charger to an eighth place finish in the Lenox Industrial Tools
301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He wants to stay up front.
"We need to keep going out there and getting top fives and top 10s," Hornish said. "Then we can win races. We'll keep working away at it."It was the fourth top-10 finish of the season for Hornish in the 17 races staged so far this year. As has been the case in his previous top-10 runs, Hornish started deep in the field and worked his way up near the lead. With qualifying rained out, the field at New Hampshire was set by points, putting Hornish in the 26th position as the race began.
When the first round of pit stops took place just under 50 laps into the event, Hornish had moved up to 21st, and when the field completed the 100th lap in the race, Hornish was running in 13th after wrestling with a tight-handling car. He moved up to eighth in the field with about 120 laps in the books.
Hornish stayed in the top 15 as the rest of the field cycled through the pits, and after avoiding a multi-car crash near lap 170, he pushed his way into the fourth position as the race passed the halfway mark of its scheduled 301 laps.
Hornish remained a major player in the race and had a hold on eighth place when rain ended the event on lap 267. Hornish said he had hopes of pushing his way even closer to the lead had those final 34 laps been completed.
"We had a really good car, and it's just unfortunate we didn't get to finish the race," he said. "I'm real proud of all the guys working on the car."
Travis Geisler, the crew chief for the No. 77 Dodge piloted by Hornish, said moving from the 26th starting position to an eighth place finish reflected a solid day's work by Hornish.
"Sam marched his way up there and really, we just kind of kept methodically working our way up. We never had anything go wrong," Geisler said. "We were able to capitalize on having a good car, and Sam made some great moves on restarts. I think without the rain, we were definitely a top-five car."
Geisler said the top-10 runs Hornish has put together at Phoenix, Richmond, Pocono, and now New Hampshire show the dramatic progress he has made in such a brief time racing stock cars. Geisler also said without the weather cutting short Sunday's race, Hornish might have secured the first top-five finish of his Cup career.
"To come home with another top 10, and three short-track top 10s in a row, it was an awesome day for the AAA/Mobil 1 Dodge. Sam did a good job," Geisler said.
The Cup Series moves to Daytona this weekend, with the running of the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Hornish is anticipating more flirting with the lead as he returns to the track where the season started back on Feb. 15th with the Daytona 500.
"I'm really happy with what Penske Racing has been able to do this year," said Hornish, who moved up to 25th in points and saw his 2009 winnings increase to $2,141,810. "I think we're going to have some real good days coming up here."
Contact Matt Markey at:
mmarkey@theblade.com
or 419-724-6510.
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