Sam Hornish, Jr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Samuel Jon Hornish, Jr. | |
 Hornish in 2008 |
|
| Nationality | American |
| Date of Birth | June 2, 1979 |
| Place of Birth | Bryan, Ohio |
| 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup | |
| Debut season | 2007 |
| Current team | Team Penske |
| Car No. | 77 |
| Starts | 6 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Best finish | 62nd in 2007 |
| Previous series | |
| 2000-2007 | Indy Car Series |
| Championship titles | |
| 2001,2002,2006 | 3 |
Samuel Jon Hornish, Jr. (born July 2, 1979 in Bryan, Ohio) is an American race car driver. He is best known for his open wheel accomplishments, which include an Indianapolis 500 victory and three Indy Racing League championships. He currently drives the #77 Mobil 1 Dodge for Penske Racing in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.
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[edit] Early career
Hornish began racing at the age of 11 in go-karts. After competing in junior leagues for various seasons, he joined the World Karting Association in 1993, winning seven races and posting twenty-nine top-five finishes. The following season, he won several championships in WKA, including the U.S. and Canadian Grand Championships, as well as the U.S. Junior Class Grand Championship. In 1995, he repeated his U.S. Grand National title and won nine races. He would move up to the United States F2000 Series, driving six races for his family-owned team, and had one top-ten finish at Watkins Glen International. He joined Bordin Racing in 1997 and had two eleventh-place finishes, before signing with Primus Racing. He had a second-place run at Pikes Peak International Raceway and finished seventh in points.
In 1999, Hornish moved to the Toyota Atlantic Series to drive for Shank Racing. He won Rookie of the Year after getting his victory at Chicago Motor Speedway. He also drove the 24 Hours of Daytona for Intersport Racing.
[edit] IRL career
He first raced in the IRL in 2000 with the PDM Racing team, with a best finish of third. However, he switched to Panther Racing for the next season and improved enough to take the title from reigning champion Buddy Lazier. In 2002 the Penske team switched from Champ Car, and Sam was able to beat their top driver Hélio Castroneves to his second title. Along the way, Hornish beat Al Unser, Jr. by .0024 of a second in the Delphi Indy 300 in Chicago, possibly the closest race in auto history until the 2007 Indy Pro Season when Logan Gomez beat teammate and champion Alex Lloyd at the same racetrack by only 0.0005 sec, or 1.65 inches.
In 2003, most of the established top US open-wheel teams were now racing in the series, with Honda and Toyota providing engines superior to the established Chevrolet unit Panther used. As a result, Cosworth was called in to supply a replacement engine informally dubbed the "Chevworth", with which Sam was a winner again, finishing 5th in the 2003 standings. For 2004 he moved to Penske, winning the season-opener but finding that Honda engines, and not Penske's Toyotas, were now the engine of choice. 2005 was an improvement, as he finished third to Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan in the standings and the top placement of any driver not driving for Andretti Green Racing.
On May 28, 2006, after starting on the pole for the 2006 Indianapolis 500, Hornish became the first driver to ever overtake for the lead on the race's final lap, ultimately winning the race in the last 450 feet by a 0.0635-second margin over rookie Marco Andretti. Also in that year, he won the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's Scott Brayton Award, awarded annually to the driver best exemplifying a spirit of tenacity as well as friendliness amongst the race's participants. Hornish went on to win the 2006 IRL championship in the final race of the season by a tiebreaker over defending champ Dan Wheldon. He became the first 3-time champion in IRL history. In 2007, he only won one race at Texas, and finished fifth in points.
[edit] NASCAR
On October 28, 2006, Hornish announced that he will attempt to run the final two 2006 NASCAR Busch Series races for Penske Racing, as well as select events in 2007. In his first two Busch starts, Hornish wrecked his #39 Mobil 1 Dodge both times, and did not finish better than 36th. In 2007, his car was switched to the #12, and he competed in seven Busch races, his best finish being a 15th at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Beginning in fall 2007, he started attempting Nextel Cup races in the #06 for Penske, and made only two races (at Phoneix International Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway).
He will drive the #77 full-time for Penske in Sprint Cup in 2008 with Mobil 1 sponsorship. In his first Daytona 500 he had a great race, finishing 15th. Teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch finished first and second; to giving Roger Penske his first 1,2 finish in NASCAR. After the race Roger Penske said, "It is nice to see Sam display some of his racing talent in the biggest race in NASCAR." After struggling to make his first NASCAR Cup Series events; Phoenix where he finished 30th and Homestead where he finished 37th, after the 2008 Daytona 500 he admitted that even he was surprised to see himself running in the top-10 most of the day. He also said, "I wish they would have started the race about two hours sooner, so it still could have been sunny out. If the sun had never gone down, we would have had a better chance. Once the sun goes down, everybody starts getting more and more evenly matched up, because there's not all that worry about the tires sliding around so much because of the heat."
At the May All-Star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway Hornish finished second in the Sprint Showdown to earn a start in the All-Star race. Hornish finished 7th.
[edit] Education/Family
Hornish is a 1998 graduate of Archbold High School in Archbold, Ohio, and now resides in Napoleon.
On February 4, 2008 Sam and his wife Crystal welcomed their first child, Addison Faith Hornish, into the world. Baby Addison weighed 7lbs. 2oz. and measured 18 inches. Hornish finished 15th in his first Daytona 500.
[edit] Motorsport Career Results
[edit] American Open Wheel
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
[edit] IndyCar
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | PDM | WDW 20 |
PHX Ret |
LSV 3 |
IND Ret |
TXS Ret |
PPIR Ret |
ATL DNS |
KTY 9 |
TX2 Ret |
21st | 110 | ||||||||
| 2001 | Panther | PHX 1 |
HMS 1 |
ATL 4 |
IND 14 |
TXS 3 |
PPIR 2 |
RIR 2 |
KAN 2 |
NSH 6 |
KTY 3 |
STL 3 |
CHI 2 |
TX2 1 |
1st | 503 | ||||
| 2002 | Panther | HMS 1 |
PHX 3 |
CAL 1 |
NZR 17 |
IND 25 |
TXS Ret |
PPIR 3 |
RIR 1 |
KAN 2 |
NSH 3 |
MIS 7 |
KTY 2 |
STL 5 |
CHI 1 |
TX2 1 |
1st | 531 | ||
| 2003 | Panther | HMS 10 |
PHX Ret |
JPN 6 |
IND Ret |
TXS 10 |
PPIR 5 |
RIR 4 |
KAN Ret |
NSH 11 |
MIS 2 |
STL 6 |
KTY 1 |
NZR 2 |
CHI 1 |
CAL 1 |
TX2 Ret |
5th | 461 | |
| 2004 | Penske | HMS 1 |
PHX 15 |
JPN Ret |
IND Ret |
TXS 4 |
RIR 11 |
KAN 8 |
NSH 2 |
MIL 3 |
MIS 4 |
KTY 14 |
PPIR Ret |
NZR 11 |
CHI 6 |
CAL 4 |
TX2 Ret |
7th | 387 | |
| 2005 | Penske | HMS 2 |
PHX 1 |
STP Ret |
JPN 7 |
IND Ret |
TXS 2 |
RIR Ret |
KAN 12 |
NSH 2 |
MIL 1 |
MIS 5 |
KTY 7 |
PPIR 2 |
SNM 17 |
CHI 3 |
WGL 7 |
CAL 5 |
3rd | 512 |
| 2006 | Penske | HMS 3 |
STP 8 |
JPN 4 |
IND 1 |
WGL 12 |
TXS 4 |
RIR 1 |
KAN 1 |
NSH Ret |
MIL 2 |
MIS Ret |
KTY 1 |
SNM 9 |
CHI 3 |
1st-TB | 475 | |||
| 2007 | Penske | HMS 3 |
STP 7 |
JPN 5 |
KAN 6 |
IND 4 |
MIL 9 |
TXS 1 |
IOW Ret |
RIR 15 |
WGL 2 |
NSH 4 |
MDO 14 |
MIS Ret |
KTY Ret |
SNM 5 |
DET 12 |
CHI 3 |
5th | 465 |
| Years | Teams | Races | Poles | Wins | Podiums (Non-win) |
Top 10s (Non-podium) |
Indianapolis 500 Wins |
Championships |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 3 | 116 | 12 | 19 | 27 | 32 | 1 (2006) | 3 (2001, 2002, 2006) |
[edit] External links
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Buddy Lazier |
Indy Racing Northern Lights Series / Indy Racing League Champion 2001-2002 |
Succeeded by Scott Dixon |
| Preceded by Dan Wheldon |
IRL IndyCar Series Champion 2006 |
Succeeded by Dario Franchitti |
| Preceded by Dan Wheldon |
Indianapolis 500 Winner 2006 |
Succeeded by Dario Franchitti |
| Awards | ||
| Preceded by Kenny Bräck |
Scott Brayton Award 2006 |
Succeeded by Tony Kanaan |
| Penske Racing | |
| Sprint Cup drivers | Kurt Busch (#2) | Ryan Newman (#12) | Sam Hornish, Jr. (#77) |
| IRL Mobil 1 Team Penske drivers | Hélio Castroneves (#3) | Ryan Briscoe (#6) |
| American Le Mans Series DHL drivers | Sascha Maassen/Emmanuel Collard (#6) | Romain Dumas/Timo Bernhard (#7) |
| Driver development program | Billy Wease |
| Other | Roger Penske |
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