By his count, Sam Hornish, Jr., probably has attended more races at Michigan International Speedway as a fan than as a driver.

Hornish is a native of Defiance, only 70 miles south of the track that will host the Nationwide Alliance Truck Parts 250 on Saturday and the Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400 on Sunday.

It's the same track where Hornish cultivated his passion for auto racing. He first traveled to the track during a time when IndyCar racing was all the rage in the late 1980s. The MIS grandstands would be full for open-wheel races whose field included Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi, but attendance would be half that for stock-car races.

"Then," said Hornish, who won the Indianapolis 500 in 2006, "it flip-flopped."

Hornish witnessed the transition, then became a part of it. He drove in open-wheel racing for seven years and won three IndyCar championships before moving to NASCAR in 2007. In his sixth season on the stock-car circuit, Hornish has started in only one Sprint Cup race this year but enters this weekend's Alliance Truck Parts 250 fourth in the Nationwide drivers standings with 404 points.

The Nationwide series is akin to a minor-league circuit in NASCAR, and Nationwide races — usually shorter in length than Sprint Cup Series races — are typically held on the same weekend and at the same venue as Sprint Cup races. Some full-time Sprint Cup drivers opt to compete in Nationwide races during race weekends; Dale Earnhardt, Jr., has made four Nationwide starts this season, while Kevin Harvick has made five starts and Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano have each made 10 starts on the circuit.

Hornish drew a parallel between Sprint Cup drivers competing on the Nationwide series and the Detroit Tigers.

"It would be like Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder coming down to the Mud Hens and seeing how many home runs they could hit," said Hornish, who drives for Penske Racing.

But on the Nationwide circuit this season, much has been made of the rivalry between Hornish and Danica Patrick. They've had two on-track incidents in the last six weeks including last weekend, when Hornish and Patrick tangled at the 5-Hour Energy 200 in Dover, Del.

Hornish attempted to pass Patrick on the inside, but Patrick ran out of room in the corner of Turn 4. Hornish made contact with the left rear panel of Patrick's Chevrolet, and Patrick slid into Brad Sweet before hitting the wall.

"We were all going gangbusters on the restart," Patrick told reporters after the race. "The tires were so good, so you try and use them. I was racing the car in front of me [Sweet's], and the car behind me [Hornish's] is racing me."

Some believe the incident added more fuel to a rivalry, but Hornish said after the race that he harbored no ill will toward Patrick.

He takes a different perspective regarding the perceived tug-of-war.

"There's a lot of rivalries in driving," Hornish said. "There's Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon. There's Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick … well, there's Kyle Busch and just about everyone.

"But there's a lot being made about the fact that we have a rivalry, and it's probably because we've known each other for so long. I look at it as she's another person I want to beat. Unfortunately, for me sometimes, I can be looked at as the bad guy because I have run into her."

But, he said, laughing, "Maybe if she gave me some more room …"

Still, driving on the Nationwide series is not only lucrative but during a race weekend, it also can prove to be educational.

"For a lot of drivers a lot of times, it's that next opportunity to race," Hornish said. "We'd race shopping carts if they'd let us. But guys who have the opportunities to race who are stars, they get the need for speed, and they get to learn a little bit more about the track and how it might change for the race. Those guys, they want to race. They want to race more."

Contact Rachel Lenzi at: rlenzi@theblade.com, 419-724-6510 or on Twitter @RLenziBlade.

First Published June 11, 2012, 4:15 a.m.