Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Ford EcoBoost 300 Advance (Homestead-Miami Speedway)
Thursday, November 14, 2013
SAM HORNISH JR. BREAKOUT INTERVIEW SESSION
Sam Hornish Jr. – No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE RACE ON SATURDAY? “I’m pretty sure that this is gonna start even before that, working on getting the setup. Qualifying is not the end-all and be-all important, but we’d like to start towards the front and get ourselves a good pit stall. Obviously, if you’re on the pole, it gives you a great opportunity to lead the first lap and get that first point there, but this is not make or break for us, we’ve got to go all-out, because a lot of things can happen with the way that the tires wear here, debris, all those type of things. We can go out there and put ourselves in a bad position by trying to lead the most laps and have something happen at the end of the race to off-center ourselves, so we have to be smart about it and kind of just run our own race and do what’s comfortable for us and that it’s going to put us in the best position for the end.”
HOW WOULD IT FEEL TO BE THE FIRST OPEN-WHEEL DRIVER TO WIN NASCAR CHAMPION SINCE TONY STEWART? “Since Tony, other than Tony. That would be pretty cool. Obviously, it’s not in the Cup Series so I wouldn’t go, ‘Hey, Tony, me and you are the same, buddy.’ But outside of that I feel like when you look at the amount of people that came over. I had been thinking about this for a while and it was something that I had been wanting to do. I ran the IROC races and ran some Nationwide races and pretty soon here come a couple other people that wanted to do it and it made it look like everybody was trying to do it, even though I had put a lot of thought and emphasis in to wanting to come and do this. I think that the biggest thing for me is it would for sure mean a lot. I’ve come a long way because you want to be at the top level in whatever you’re doing and I feel like this would mean a lot to me, but I also know that my opinion of myself is kind of what matters the most. I know that I’ve done a good job this year and each part of our team has had things that have kept us from having more points, whether it was pit crew, driver, engine, car, calls made, but that’s what being part of a team is about. You accept each other for the mistakes that they’ve made and you go out there and try to do the best to make us all better as a team.”
YOU MENTIONED YOUR TEST HERE. WHAT WAS IT LIKE WHEN YOU STARTED YOUR STOCK CAR CAREER? “There was basically no testing at any tracks that we could run at back then. The times that I was testing you could go to Kentucky, which if you could get there on a day that it wasn’t raining or snowing or something like that, that was a little bit difficult and it was basically one place that you could test for a mile-and-a-half, and there was also the switch-over with the new car and the Car of Tomorrow, and it made it a little bit difficult because of having two teammates that really didn’t know the direction that they wanted to head with this car either. Neither one of them were where they wanted to be at and I didn’t know how to lean on them, and I don’t know if that would have worked even if I did at that point in time.”
ANY UPDATE FOR NEXT YEAR? “Nothing new at this point in time. I continue to talk to people and try to figure out what the best options are gonna be and actually what the options are. There’s a lot of uncertainty at this point in time, but I feel as if we’ll be able to make something happen. But, like I’ve said in the past, it’s all about trying to position me to move forward in some way. I don’t want to take anymore steps backwards or be in something that’s not gonna give me the opportunity to go out there and be competitive and have an opportunity to at least run in the top-10.”
DOES THAT TAKE THE JOY OUT OF THIS OPPORTUNITY, NOT KNOWING WHAT YOU”RE DOING NEXT YEAR? “It makes for a lot more questions to answer, but you guys are gonna ask me about something. This is something that, unfortunately, I don’t have any control over, really. It’s a lot about talking to other people and trying to figure out what it’s gonna end up being, and I try not to take that into the race car at all with me. I try to just focus on the task at hand and put all of that out of my mind because it’s not gonna do anything to help me win a championship.”
IS IT FRUSTRATING? “On one hand it’s very frustrating, but on the other hand I’ve got the opportunity to be in this sport long enough to prove to myself and a lot of other people what I’m capable of and it’s a lot better than having it happen last year. I feel like it’s not optimal, but I’m appreciative to have had the opportunities that I have and hopefully there will continue to be more in the future. I look at 2011 was a really good thing for me, not only on the family side of things, but also just in general and for the racing part of my life. It wouldn’t be optimal to run a part-time schedule, but it might help me out. I might be able to go and do testing. I might be able to learn a lot of other things and to be able to forge forward and to be even better in the next go-round.”
CAN YOU COMMENT ON ROGER PENSKE AND WHAT HE’S DONE FOR YOUR CAREER? “Roger Penske has had a lot of influence on my career even before I started racing. I was always a fan of the Penske Indy Car drivers. There have been a lot of things that happened in my life because of Roger before I even became part of the team and I knew that in order to win the Indianapolis 500 that driving for Roger was gonna give me the best opportunity to do that. Then we decided to come upon this experiment and it’s been great to work there and hopefully it’s not the end of it. I think Roger will continue to be a good friend of mine and I’ll be the same no matter how this all turns out.”
WHAT HAS HE SAID ABOUT THIS SITUATION? “He said at one point, ‘Don’t get too upside-down about this. There are a lot of things that can still happen yet.’ I was like, ‘RP, I’m still gonna go out there and I’m gonna do the best of my ability and it doesn’t all hinge on what happens right now.’ We’re gonna work hard at it. We’re gonna try to do everything we can to win the championship.”
WHAT’S THE FEELING LIKE AT PENSKE BECAUSE YOU’RE RUNNING FOR THE DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP, THE 22 IS BATTLING FOR THE OWNERS’ TITLE AND FORD HAS A CHANCE AT THE MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP? “The way that I look at it is if I win the race and lead the most laps that those guys are taken care of because then the 54 can’t do it and the manufacturers’ is taken care of, and then we only have to worry about what Austin does. The thing that I continue to think about is what happens if we have to battle the 22 at the end of the race and they’re trying to get a point and I’m trying to get a point and all those good things. We want to go out there and we want to be strong and do all the things that we need to and it’s great that on both sides of our organization we have the opportunity to win championships and I feel like that shows how strong we’ve been this year. I think that if we go out there and we do the things that we know how to that we ought to be able to at least come home with one of them.”
