Richard Petty Motorsports announced today that Sam Hornish Jr. will be the new driver for the No. 9 Ford Fusion in 2015, replacing Marcos Ambrose who announced last month that he was returning to his native Australia. Representatives from the team, along with Hornish, held a teleconference this morning.
SAMMY JOHNS, Director of Competition, Richard Petty Motorsports – “We are happy to announce officially that Sam Hornish Jr. has joined Richard Petty Motorsports as the driver of the No. 9 Ford Fusion in 2015. Sam is a proven champion who we expect to win races for us and also become a leader for not only our No. 9 team, but also for our organization.”
SAM HORNISH JR. – No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion – “I feel like this is a great opportunity for me to be able to join a team like Richard Petty Motorsports. It really means a lot to me. I look at my racing career and I’ve been very blessed to work with some icons in motorsports. To have the opportunity to work for the King now after coming out of a year where I had a part-time job working for the Coach and then the Captain in the past, I feel really good about this opportunity to join the No. 9 team and having the opportunity to work with Drew Blickensderfer, and also to work with Aric and the 43 team. There’s a lot of momentum in this organization and people that are putting in a lot of hours – working extremely hard. It’s Sammy and all the guys there too that are trying to push this organization forward and to regain a top spot in the sport. I feel like having this opportunity to be here is awesome for my career. I just can’t say enough about the fact of getting to come here and being a part of something that’s building. They’ve done a lot in the last two years and they continue to position themselves so that they can move forward and go from being somebody that was a contender to being in the Chase to this year they had the 43 team in the Chase and had some really strong runs. Except for a couple of problems here and there, they should have definitely transferred on into this next round. I feel like having the opportunity is great for me and above and beyond to be able to drive for Richard Petty now is just awesome. I’m looking forward to getting to know everybody at RPM and all the guys on the No. 9 team.”
DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE BETTER PREPARED FOR A FULL-TIME CUP RIDE THIS TIME AS OPPOSED TO WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED? “I feel like I’m a lot better prepared. I think that at the point that I was getting ready to go full-time in my first go-round, it was maybe at the course of having about 12 or 15 stock car races in general under my belt. So obviously having that opportunity I’ve got to work with quite a few different crew chiefs over the past couple years and really what that allows me to do is be able to better understand what’s going through their heads and pick up things I like from one crew chief to the next and be able to – in my routine about the way that I translate my notes and my thoughts on the car and the direction that we need to go – I’m better able to express those feelings and to lead the crew chief in the direction and also at the same time I’m better able to understand when they’ve got a good point of the direction they want to head in and I can feel free to release the reins a little bit there. This is a different opportunity for sure than the one that I had previously, and I’m not gonna talk bad about anybody or anything like that, but there were a lot of different things that made that not work and the thing I really need to be thankful for over the long run is that I stayed in the fold long enough and held to my values of what I thought was gonna get myself back into having the opportunity to be in a competitive Cup ride, and did the right things and had good people around me too in order to put myself in good positions and try to get back to this point. I’ve worked four years to get back to this point and I feel like as a driver I’ve come a long way. I’ve found my voice really as far as what you need to have as far as a Cup driver’s concern about directionally trying to help steer an organization. I feel like when I look at it that the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports, it’s kind of like a small ship. It’s a lot easier to turn. They’ve got a lot of things heading in a really good direction. They’re association with Roush Yates as far as the horsepower and Ford Racing and Roush with the chassis, I think that there are so many things that are a benefit and it’s gonna enable the team to being at two cars I fully expect Aric and myself to get on the same page and to have kind of a common goal or common direction as far as what we want to do and what we expect. Once we get that figured out, at this point in time I’m the new guy so it’s really me coming in and seeing where they’re at and what direction Aric and the team thinks we need to head until I get my feet wet and find my voice within the team. Then we’ll find out what happens because when you can get two drivers on the same page it really bodes well for the organization because you’re able to take a lot of the guess work out. You don’t have to make as many changes when you’ve got two guys basically heading in the same direction. You can get there twice as fast.”
DID YOU EVER WONDER IF THIS FULL-TIME CUP RIDE WAS IN YOUR FUTURE AGAIN? “At about the end of 2010 I don’t know that it would have been beneficial for me to have a full-time Cup ride in 2011 because I’d worked so hard to try to keep my head above water and I really wasn’t in a good spot as far as confidence goes. I’d take quite a few lumps and I had always tried to work on those things and I always saw that there was light at the end of the tunnel, but sometimes you don’t know if that’s a train or not. I feel like having 2011, while it was a big hit and I only did a few races here and there, it really gave me an opportunity to do a lot of testing, which I had never had that opportunity up until that point, and also to run some Nationwide races and to have a good, competitive team and a crew chief and give myself an opportunity to win some races. It was a huge confidence-builder. In 2012, when I was filling in and running the 22 car, I felt like, ‘All right, I’m doing all the things that it’s gonna take to get a Cup job,’ and it didn’t work out. We had sponsors at the time and made a strong run for the championship in 2013 and found myself without a ride and you kind of always wonder where things are gonna land from that point, but I put my trust in that if I found a way to put myself in good equipment this season and did the right things that something good would come along and sure enough it did. So I feel like sometimes it’s really easy to either give up or put yourself in a bad situation because you feel that need that you have to be out there on the track every week, but sometimes being the free-agent is a little more beneficial because it allows you to maneuver a little bit easier.”
WAS THERE ANY HESITATION TO SIGN THIS DEAL CONSIDERING THE SPONSOR SITUATION? “There’s no hesitation with that because I feel like their marketing program is working really hard. That was one of the things that I feel like I’ve been pretty good at in the past was we took a program where we had an opportunity to run six or seven races in 2011 with the sponsor that I had then. We grew that into about 13 that year and then into two full-time seasons on the Nationwide side and then those sponsors eventually went to Cup. That’s something that I feel I’m good at. I’ve had a lot of experience over 15 years now of dealing with basically Fortune 500 companies, top tier companies that are in motorsports, and almost all of them are still in it in one form or fashion, so that’s part of what this challenge is – to get not only the program where we want to be competitively, but also where the team would like it financially and I feel like I’m one of the best guys as far as having the opportunity to hopefully help them do that.”
WHAT KEPT YOU PURSUING STOCK CAR RACING? “I haven’t achieved yet what I came over here originally for. A lot of people want to always ask me, ‘Why don’t you just go back to Indy Cars,’ and I never came over here because I wanted to have a little more fame or I felt like I was gonna make any more money doing it. I came over here because I was intrigued by the competition side of it. I felt like I had accomplished what I wanted to in the Indy Car Series and now I put myself back in a position where I can continue to build on what I originally came over here for, and the Nationwide Series is not in any way a step back because it gave me the opportunity to have this and it’s very competitive on that side as well. I just like the competition aspect of it. It’s so much different than other forms of racing. The pit crews are so important. Having a crew chief that has a feel for the race. It takes just so many more pieces of the puzzle that have to be right and that’s why you see when guys are strong that it generally continues year after year because you get that good, solid group of people together and they build upon what they’ve been doing. I feel like for me I’ve never felt like I’ve been one to shy away from a challenge and I’ve always felt like I want to work hard and anything worth achieving is going to be somewhat of a struggle. Maybe this is more of a struggle than I ever thought it was gonna be, but it’s been fun and it’s really taught me a lot about myself and I continue to grow through each setback and each success the same way. That’s how you work to try to become a well-rounded person and I think for me it’s that thrill and that excitement of going out there and competing and knowing how satisfying it is when you do get those wins, when you get those top-five finishes and say, ‘Yeah, we may not have had a top-10 car today, but we got a top-five finish out of it because we worked as a team and found a way to put ourselves in position.’ The harder it is to do, the more satisfying it is and the more it means when you achieve those things.”
SAMMY JOHNS CONTINUED – WHAT DID YOU SEE IN SAM AND WHY DO YOU THINK HE’S SUCH A GOOD FIT FOR THE TEAM? “Sam is gonna be a great fit here at Richard Petty Motorsports. Sam is a champion. He’s a great race car driver. He’s hungry to get back to the Cup Series and prove that he can win races at this level. We saw that and we felt it and we feel like Sam is gonna be a really great fit to Richard Petty Motorsports with Aric and the 43 team and the No. 9 team and working with other Ford teams as well, so we’re really excited about that and really looking forward to getting going with Sam. Like we said yesterday, we wish this was February already.”
HOW MUCH EASIER WAS IT TO TALK TO DRIVERS ABOUT THIS OPENING BECAUSE OF YOUR TEAM BEING ON THE RISE? “It’s helping. We’re not where we want to be yet. We’ve got to continue to push that performance up on the race track. Our ownership is committed to this race team and making the investments we need to continue to make the improvements we’re making, and I think it definitely helps us attract drivers like Sam Hornish to look at this race team, to be his next venture into the Cup Series. That definitely has to help. Having the 43 car in the Chase. Having the 9 barely miss the Chase and our performance this year and the engineering resources we’ve added has definitely helped have a driver like Sam Hornish Jr. look at this race team.”
SAM HORNISH JR. CONTINUED – WHAT MAKES THIS OPPORTUNITY IDEAL FOR YOU AND DID YOU CONSIDER OTHER TEAMS BEFORE MAKING THIS DECISION? “The best way to put that is I have an opportunity to work for Richard Petty. That’s one of the top things on it. I look at the effort that they’ve put into this. There was never a point where they didn’t put a lot of effort into it, but just the direction that started taking the team, the way that both cars have run. Right now, they’re finding the speed and the thing that they are really getting to the point now is not only do they have the speed, but they have the consistency every week. They’re showing up at the race track and when you look at practice times and qualifying they’re in the top 10 and having good runs. I feel like, for me, this is a great opportunity to try and help build something. My end goal for all of this at some point in time is leave it better than where it was when I found it, and anything I can do to help them build the organization. Right now it’s two cars and there are a lot of things that they have their eyes on in the future, and I feel like if I can be a part of that – sometimes the best way I can put it is one of the reasons I decided I wanted to come over and do stock car racing in the first place is because I got to see the difference at what it was at Penske Racing when I was there, and they had success but they hadn’t won the Daytona 500, hadn’t won the championship and things like that. I knew all along that I might not be the guy that gets them those wins or gets them those championships, but if I can be part of it, if I can either through my attitude or the things that I do that help with team morale to help move things forward that it would be well worth it for me. I feel like this is kind of the same thing. I feel like Richard Petty and the organization has done so much for the sport of NASCAR and I would envision that whenever it’s time for me to hang up my gloves or do whatever that is that hopefully I would see it to the point where the question wouldn’t get asked of me, ‘What drew you here?’ Everybody wants to be there. That’s one of the places to be, so I think that they’re a great organization and even with the limited amount of time I’ve spent with them so far I can already see how many good people there are and what a family-oriented program it is at this point and I can’t wait to see where the next couple of years takes them.”
DO YOU FEEL LESS PRESSURE GOING TO RPM COMPARED TO BEING AT PENSKE OR GIBBS? YOU CAN DO YOUR THING OUTSIDE OF THE SPOTLIGHT, SO TO SPEAK? “I feel like there’s not really such a thing as outside the spotlight. Anything that’s kind of pushed towards me or anybody that’s looking at this definitely thinks that this is a big opportunity for me. I’m hungry to go out there and do good. I’m not really gonna say, ‘You know, since there aren’t as many eyes on me I don’t have to push it hard,’ because the biggest person that I’m worried about what they think about how this goes is myself. I need to go out there and I need to work really hard at what I’m gonna do and the opportunities I’m gonna be in and I just for the most part feel like it’s a lot about living up to my own expectations. That’s something that I think we need to do as a team is we need to sit down and really evaluate what our goals are gonna be over the next 12 months and just figure out where we want to be when we’re sitting here a year from now – what we would be satisfied with and what we would be overly excited about. In some ways this is gonna be a different opportunity for me coming from basically having a couple years off where I wasn’t running the Cup Series. It’s a big commitment as far as time for me, so I want to make sure when I’m doing these things that I feel like I’m getting out of it what I want to and from everything that we’ve talked about so far nobody is looking at this as something that we’re just going in there to get by. We’re going to go and put the time and the effort in to not only exceed our own expectations but the people that are looking at us from the outside’s expectations as well.”
SAMMY JOHNS CONTINUED – HOW DOES SAM’S DEMEANOR FIT WITH ARIC AND DREW AND THE REST OF THE TEAM? “I think Sam’s demeanor fits really well with what we are here at Richard Petty Motorsports and he’s gonna be a great addition to our family. With Drew and Trent and Aric I think they’re all gonna get along real well and that definitely plays into your decision when you’re looking at these things because the stronger you can make your team from the communication standpoint and everybody getting along with the sharing of information is just gonna make us a stronger race team. Like Sam mentioned earlier, we’re a two-car team and we’re gonna operate as one and I think Sam is gonna be a great fit for that.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT ANY ADDITIONAL SPONSORSHIP? “We’re still working on sponsorship. There should be announcements coming in the near future, but we’re working on that with our current partners and we’re also talking to some new partners as well.”
IS THIS A ONE-YEAR DEAL OR A MULTI-YEAR DEAL? “This is a multi-year deal right now. Richard has a history of having long-term relationships with his drivers and we’re looking forward to that with Sam.”
SAM HORNISH JR. CONTINUED – HOW MUCH TIME WILL YOU SPEND AT THE SHOP THIS YEAR? “I’m gonna hopefully spend more time than they hopefully expect me to be there. That’s been one of the things I feel like has always been one of my strong suits is having the opportunity to spend time at the shop working with the people that are working on the cars, understanding where exactly we’re at, and I really enjoy that. I’m a car guy and that was my love before any of this other stuff, so if I’m either at the shop or at home I’m usually thinking about something automotive related, so I’m looking forward to getting in there. Obviously, there’s a lot we’re gonna have to do as far as getting fitted for the car and hopefully get some opportunities to drive a little bit before the end of the season and figure out a little bit of a game plan as far as maybe things I like versus what Aric likes. I think the more time I can immerse myself at the shop and understanding where they’re at, kind of like getting a head start over some other people that wouldn’t have opportunity because they’re out there full-time racing, so I feel like the situation that I’m in right now is a little bit advantageous as far as that goes because it allows me to be there and to kind of get a little bit of a head start.”
SAMMY JOHNS CONTINUED – WAS EXPERIENCE A FACTOR IN HIRING SAM VERSUS MAYBE YOUR DEVELOPMENT DRIVERS? “We looked for experience because we’re still building this organization and we needed a driver that can come in and help us continue to build our organization to be at the level we want to be at, and to help us strengthen our partnerships with our current partners and also attract new partners. We felt like Sam would be a great fit for that, so we definitely looked more towards a driver with experience for that reason because we are still building this organization to get it to the top level and we felt like a driver with experience was the direction we needed to go.”
SAM HORNISH JR. CONTINUED – WHAT INFLUENCE DID YOUR FAMILY HAVE ON YOU COMING BACK TO FULL-TIME CUP RACING? “That’s one of the first things I thought about when this opportunity presented itself. I sat down with my wife and got an idea of what she expected and to be quite honest with you there was no question in her mind. She said, ‘You need to do that. That’s a great opportunity with good people and it’s what you’ve worked the last four years to try to get yourself back to.’ And then the other sounding boards are two of the three kids that can talk right now. I asked my oldest what she thought about dad going back full-time racing and she thought about it for a minute and said, ‘Let me think about it a little bit.’ The next day I was driving her to school and she said, ‘Dad, I thought about it and I really think that I want you to go full-time racing.’ And I said, ‘Why is that?’ And she said, ‘Because I want to be able to go to MRO.’ MRO is Motor Racing Outreach and it’s an opportunity for where the kids get to go and hang out with other kids their age and things like that. So even if it was for her own reason she can’t ever say that she didn’t want me to do it. I’ve got her saying that she wanted to, but I know that it’s a big commitment for me, but I also know that these opportunities don’t come along very often and, like I said, I’ve worked four years to get this opportunity. I think they’re all really happy about it from my friends and family, the people that I’ve already been texting me and telling me how excited they are. It’s pretty much a unanimous decision of people that are really excited to see me have this opportunity.”
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS ABOUT HANDLING THE PEAKS AND VALLEYS YOU’VE GONE THROUGH RECENTLY? “I’ve had obviously from winning the Indianapolis 500 to having some pretty bad days, so there have been ups and downs, but really if I sit back and think about it – yeah, I take this all very seriously and I put a lot of effort into my career, but even the bad days as long as you can weather them, and understand that it doesn’t necessarily define who you are as either a person or as your career goes, even on the bad days I got to do what I always wanted to do growing up. Not too many people get to say that, so I think one of the things I continue to work on is being able to shake off the bad days, to be able to hit a reset button a little bit, but that’s always a tough thing because if you easily shake it off, how much does it mean to you? I feel like sometimes those bad days is what makes me want to get into the gym or be on my bike for two hours trying to make myself better so the next time I’m in the car that it helps makes things a little easier, or spend a few more hours at the shop trying to figure out what we’re gonna do to be able to try to figure out how we can move forward as an organization, so I’ve really enjoyed a lot of the aspect. I’m sure there are people out there that could say, ‘How could you enjoy all of that?’ But, really, when it comes down to it, nobody learns a whole lot about themselves from the good things that happen in their life. You learn a lot more about yourself from your defeats and things like that. I think that it’s all been worth it. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything because it’s a great story. If I would have come over here and everything went perfect my first go-round, I wouldn’t have probably ever had the opportunity to work for Richard Petty, so I’ve got to just be thankful that I’ve got the opportunities now that I’ve got and try to work as hard as I can to make the most of them.”
SAMMY JOHNS CONTINUED – WILL YOU FIELD ANY CUP OR NATIONWIDE CARS WITH SAM THIS YEAR OR TEST BEFORE THE BAN GOES INTO EFFECT? “Currenty, we don’t have any plans to run any races with Sam this year. I won’t say never, but that’s currently not in the plan. We are scheduling some testing right now in the next few weeks before the testing ban goes into effect. We’re hoping to get at least two and possibly three tests done before the testing ban is put in place.”
THERE HAS BEEN SPECULATION RPM WOULD GIVE UP THE 9 TO HENDRICK WHEN CHASE ELLIOTT IS READY TO GO CUP RACING. HAVE YOU BEEN APPROACHED ABOUT CHANGING THE NUMBER NOW? “Currently, we’re committed to racing the number 9 and we have no immediate plans to change.”
SAM HORNISH JR. CONTINUED – WHO IS YOUR BIGGEST HERO IN RACING AND HOW DID THEY MOTIVATE YOU TO GET TO THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER? “It’s kind of continuing to change as I’ve gotten older, but when I was a kid one of my first racing heroes was Rick Mears. It was kind of funny because when I got the opportunity to go to Indy Car, a lot of people compared me to Rick – being quiet, a little bit more reserved, and just kind of went out on the track and did their job. Then I had an opportunity to meet Rick and he was even better than I would have ever even expected, even after being a fan of his. But I’ve been a fan of stock car racing my entire life, too. I was always a big Dale Earnhardt fan when I was growing up, but I was always also a Richard Petty fan because Richard and I have the same birthday, July 2. I always thought it was pretty cool that I was born on the King’s birthday.”
SAMMY JOHNS CONTINUED – WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT DRIVERS YOU HAVE FOR 2015? “We’re currently working on our 2015 plans with all of our development drivers. We’re working through that and there will be announcements at a later date.”
ARE THERE ANY PLANS TO HAVE SAM RUN NATIONWIDE RACES NEXT YEAR? “Again, we’re working on our 2015 Nationwide plans. We have had some talks about being able to run our Cup drivers – both Aric and Sam – in some Nationwide races next year because we really feel like that helps, and hopefully we’ll have some news to deliver on that at a later date.”
