For Sam Hornish Jr. there’s just something about Phoenix. The former open wheel driver scored his first career IndyCar win at the jewel in the desert in March of 2001 and on Saturday afternoon he did the same in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
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[/media-credit]It comes after he scored his first career Sprint Cup Series top 10 at Phoenix and after he started his first Cup and Nationwide races at the track. But it was also the place that the first time he saw it in a stock car he hit everything but the pace car. Saturday though, he was repeatedly praised and congratulated on his accomplishment.
“I can’t hardly believe it,” said Hornish. “It’s been a great day.”
Hornish’s win didn’t come by surprise or late race strategy. The No. 12 Alliance Dodge was in contention all day, leading 62 of 200 laps on their way to victory lane. Running a partial schedule with Penske Racing, team owner Roger Penske says that Hornish been humbled the last 12-18 months. Coming from the IndyCar Series where he’s won races and championships, it hasn’t been the same in NASCAR.
Part of it, says Penske, was his fault for putting in Cup Series before he was ready. Hornish was never given time to learn the craft, instead thrown right in with the big boys. He’s found a comfortable home though running in the NNS with crew chief Chad Walter and Penske’s working on putting together a deal for the team to run the full season in 2012. But on Saturday it wasn’t about the future, Hornish was living in the present and experiencing the feeling of being a winner again for the first time in many years.
“I don’t know if I was always as optimistic as Roger is,” said Hornish about his NASCAR potential. “I look back at 2008, I feel I had a great opportunity in 2008 and what happened that year was I had been so accustomed to being first all the time that when I came over I didn’t know how to take a 15th.”
There have been many learning curves for Hornish. He short and unaccomplished Cup career left many with doubt about his venture into the stock car world. Criticized on a weekly basis and insulted by five-time champion Jimmie Johnson could have scared Hornish away. But Penske told Hornish not to beat himself up and Hornish for his part kept after it, even though he too questioned his career move.
Not racing every weekend in 2011 also got to Hornish. Realization of just how much he wanted to run every lap he possibly could hit home as he longed to learn everything he could. A large part of his time has been devoted to testing for Penske and helping the full-time teams of Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski, who he beat on Saturday.
“This what I wanted,” said Hornish, who said he was glad that he’s stuck it out. “I came over here not because there’s more money or anything like that, it was because I was interested, I got a opportunity to run some Nationwide races throughout 2007 and after doing that I got to see there was something different out there and something that challenged me again.”
It’s been a big challenge that Hornish acknowledges and knew he would face. For the Defiance, Ohio native he would be just that, defiant to failure and instead used every situation he could to build his character. It all led him to Saturday in Phoenix when he beat some of the best in the business. Afterwards Hornish seemed at a loss for words when talking about his journey and those who helped him get there.
“I got a lot of people to thank and my dad’s probably one of the biggest ones,” said Hornish. “He kept telling me even through a tough season like this season, ‘Do you love doing it?’ and I said ‘Yeah, I love being in the racecar.’ He said ‘Well, keep doing it then.’”
Blessed is how Hornish describes himself. Emotional as well was Hornish and Penske, who said there would be a lot more of Hornish celebrations in the future. Keselowski, who again finished second to a Penske driver scoring this first win, said the same about his teammate’s bright future.
“Huge, huge day for Sam,” said Keselowski. “Sam has paid a lot of dues in this sport and it’s good to see him have some success. Obviously he’s gone two or three years at the Cup level had a couple times when he was close to getting that win and today he was able to get it done. Might be at the Nationwide Series but you have to start somewhere. This looks like a good fit for him.”
