[media-credit name=”Gary Buchanan” align=”alignright” width=”236″]
[/media-credit]While Sam Hornish, Jr. may be thrilled with the opportunity presented to him to drive the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge, he is also pleased with his new status. He is now officially in demand in multiple NASCAR series.
Hornish, Jr. is attempting the double, running both the Nationwide race at Iowa Speedway and the Cup race at Pocono Raceway.
“It’s kind of a lot on my plate this weekend,” Hornish said. “I’ll close my eyes and sleep for a little bit on the airplane to try to catch up.”
Hornish advised that after he finishes up in the Cup car, he will head to Iowa to practice in the Nationwide car. He estimates giving up about thirty minutes of track time on both ends of the racing spectrum.
“It’s just a little bit too far to be able to make all the practice sessions on both sides,” Hornish said. “We think we’ve got a good plan as far as what we’re going to do and try to get as much time as we can in both places.”
“I’ll sleep here, qualify the Cup car tomorrow, then we’ll go back over there, qualify, do the driver’s meeting, race and come back here,” Hornish said. “It seems like a lot but last year when Brad (Keselowski) was hurt, I actually did the same trip without getting to drive the Cup car so this is an added bonus.”
The double duty may be tricky for the driver, but it is also a challenge for the crew chiefs and teams as well.
“Fortunately, it’s something we have done before,” Travis Geisler, Director of Competition for Penske Racing, said. “We’re really fortunate to have a lot of really great people around us to help ad support and make this doable and to make it very smooth.”
“Obviously, they’ll be a lot of little things along the way, but we’re down to figuring out what kind of food we need to have where for him and just trying to make it as comfortable as possible,” Geisler continued. “Sam is going to be in a heck of a lot of race cars in a lot of different places in a short amount of time.”
“I’m excited about it,” Geisler said. “I think it is a unique challenge.”
One of the other major challenges that Hornish and company may have to face is the unpredictable weather in both Long Pond, PA and Newton, IA. Although just really hot at Iowa Speedway, there are some threats of thunderstorms at Pocono in the forecast.
“We’ve got contingency plans for contingency plans,” Geisler said with a smile. “Obviously you try to think of all those scenarios, of everything that can go wrong, everything that can happen.”
“There are a few that can make it really, really difficult that we’ll have to deal with,” Geisler continued. “You know everybody is trying to be as prepared as possible.”
“We’re hoping for the best,” Geisler said. “Otherwise it will be a forest fire and we’ll try to put it out.”
Pocono Raceway has a special place in Hornish’s heart, with his most successful runs being at the ‘Tricky Triangle’. Hornish finished fourth in 2009, his best career Cup finish in 113 series starts.
“We’ve led laps and had some of our strongest runs at Pocono,” Hornish said. “We finished fourth in 2009, but really had our best shot at winning there in the races during the 2010 season.”
“We led pretty late in both of those races and if luck had been on our side, we could have won.”
Hornish is also looking forward to the Nationwide race in Iowa, driving the No. 12 WURTH Dodge Challenger. He will be making his 20th start of the season and his third Nationwide start at Iowa Speedway.
Hornish’s best finish came in May of this year, where he finished 12th. After 19 races, Hornish and his Nationwide team are fourth in the championship point standings.
“Our WURTTH Dodge team is in a very good place heading into Iowa,” Hornish said. “We have been consistently improving our performance throughout the year.”
“We have qualified well in the past at Iowa – we just haven’t put it all together and this weekend we are poised to do just that,” Hornish continued. “We feel like we’ve built some strong momentum and we are looking forward to finishing this one on top.”
Whether by plane, helicopter, car or golf cart, Sam Hornish Jr. is most thrilled just to be given the opportunity to race in both major series in the sport.
“I feel like we’ve got some really good opportunities here and just trying to maintain everything and not get stressed out about it,” Hornish said. “I plan to just enjoy it.”
“Something good happened to me at the end of last season,” Hornish continued. “We got the opportunity to go full-time Nationwide racing and you know, we’re doing pretty good over there.”
“Now we’ve got the opportunity to go Cup racing too,” Hornish said. “So just trying to take both things and run with it and enjoy it as best I can.”
“It’s a good feeling to be in a little bit of demand.”
