Sam Hornish extends point lead as strong season start continues
With three wins in the first five races of the Nationwide Series season, veteran Kyle Busch has garnered a lot of attention.
Those chasing Busch though, such as point leader Sam Hornish Jr., haven’t been going quietly into the night. Two weeks ago in Las Vegas it was Hornish who went toe-to-toe with Busch and dominated the race for his first win of the season. Saturday in another west coast race on another big, wide-open track, Hornish again gave Busch a run for his money. This time however, coming up one position short.
“I feel like if I hadn’t I might have had an opportunity but I had to drive it that close to being on the edge to be able to catch him,” said Hornish afterwards on his battle with Busch, which included scraping the turn two wall with two laps to go.
“I could catch him a tenth and a half one lap and then I would stay even with him. It was almost like he was just keeping the gap pretty much the same. The only thing I felt like we might be able to do a little better was run through traffic and we saw it coming but it just wasn’t what we were going to need.”
Hornish, who said he thought the racing was great, felt he could have let Busch have the lead earlier, hoping that he might wear the tires out. Instead he overestimated how much he was pushing his Wurth Ford, including his right rear tire. He lost the lead to Busch with 25 laps to go after leading for a total of 28 circuits.
But the finish gives Hornish, who is just one of two drivers, who have finished in the top 10 in every race this season. It’s what’s helped Hornish become the early championship favorite when the season opened in Daytona. Competitors, such as Busch, have noted that Hornish appears to be a different driver this season, perhaps more focused, determined and already with an edge toward the title. Except, for the Penske Racing team, who haven’t missed a beat since their switch from Dodge to Ford, it’s been business as usual.
“It feels really good. We started off the year just the way we wanted to and have made sure we took care of the car throughout the first five races as well as we could,” said Hornish.
“We wanted to get out of the box good and I preached that to the team in the offseason. We wanted to get through the first five races in good standing and I am real happy with the way Greg Erwin and the guys on the team have been performing and the job they are doing for me.”
The series heads into an off weekend before heading back to the track on April 12 at Texas. Hornish is former winner at the 1.5-mile track during his career in the IndyCar Series and fortunately, the bigger tracks have been his strong suit thus far in the NNS season. When he heads to the speedway next month it’ll be with a 28-point lead on Regan Smith.
“We want to win races as bad as we want to win the points,” Hornish said.
“When there was still smoke in the car halfway down the back straightaway [from hitting the wall] I was worried we would end up with a flat tire and I would end up looking real bad. I am glad things worked out the way they did.”
Busch wins the Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway
Kyle Busch won the 15th Annual NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Royal Purple 300. This was Busch’s sixth victory and 12th top-10 finish in 15 races at Auto Club Speedway.
This was Busch’s third victory of the season and the fourth top-10 finish in 2013.
Sam Hornish Jr. finished second, Regan Smith third, Parker Kligerman fourth and Austin Dillon rounded out the top-5.
“It feels really good. We started off the year just the way we wanted to and have made sure we took care of the car throughout the first five races as well as we could. We wanted to get out of the box good and I preached that to the team in the off-season.” Hornish said posting his fifth top-10 finish this season.
Busch started on the pole but Sadler took over the lead on lap 2 and started to put some ground on the other leaders while Busch battled with Brad Keselowski, Hornish Jr. and Brian Vickers.
Sadler was pulling away when all of a sudden he started to slow down and went down to the apron of the track. Sadler switched ignition switches and able to continue.
The first caution waved on lap 33 for debris when the No.7 of Smith blew the left front tire of his JR Motorsports car and threw some tire pieces on the race track to cause the caution. All of the leaders came in to pit for the first stop of the day. Everyone took four tires but the lead did not change as Busch came in first and came out first. Vickers, Hornish Jr, Scott and Sadler came out of the pits in the top-5.
Restart was on lap 38 with Busch leading while everybody was going two, three or even four wide. Busch kept the lead while Hornish Jr. passed Vickers for second place. Hornish then gained little every lap and was battling Busch for the lead on lap 41 and took over the lead. Busch battled back took over the lead two laps later.
The Caution came out right after Busch took over the lead when the No.79 of Paulie Harraka just went up in flames on the backstretch. Harraka got out of the car and was okay.
The green flag waved on lap 50 with Hornish Jr. and Busch battling for the lead with Hornish Jr. Busch took over the lead on lap 54 while Vickers was telling his crew that something was not right with the car and went into the pits.
Green flag pit stops occurred on lap 78 with the No.32 of Kyle Larson came in for his second pit stop of the day. Scott also came in saying his car is pretty good but he just needs a little more tightness in the car and it will be real good. Keselowksi came in and told his crew he was “wrecking loose” but it was getting better. Hornish Jr. and Sadler came in and has solid stops and was away. Busch finally came in on lap 81 and finished his stop but came out second due to Hornish Jr. took over the top spot due to coming in two laps earlier and had faster tires. Busch did not seem fazed by that as he took Hornish Jr. for the lead and pulled away.
With 57 laps to go, the caution came out for debris on the race track. Everybody came into the pits but nobody will be able to make it as they will be about 10-12 laps short of making it to the good. Everybody took four tires except for the No.2 of Brian Scott as Scott took no tires and came out first out of pit lane.
The green flag waved on lap 100 and with Scott having no tires, he just flew back into the pack as Busch and Hornish Jr took over the lead like they have been doing the entire race.
The caution waved with 39 laps to go when Jason White and Mike Harmon got together coming off of turn 4. All but one of the leaders came in for their “money” stop. Most everyone did not take tires as all they needed was fuel. Hornish Jr. came out first with Busch right behind him. Scott was the only one that took tires as he did not take tires the last stop while the others did. Keselowski did not pit and will lead them back to the green with 35 laps to go.
Green waved with 35 laps to go and all the guys were up on the gas ready to go! Hornish over took his teammate on the backstretch to regain the lead while the young stud of Larson was battling Busch for third. Busch passed Keselowski for second and set his sights on Hornish Jr.
Brad Sweet spun coming onto the backstretch with 27 to go but no caution flag. Busch got a great run off the corner and past Hornish Jr. for the lead. Hornish Jr. was slowly gaining on Busch but with two laps to go, Hornish Jr. smacked the outside wall trying to get as much as he could but came up one spot short.
Hornish Jr. leads the series point standings by 28 points over Regan Smith.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| Royal Purple 300, Auto Club Speedway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/n2s/race.php?race=5 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 1 | 54 | Kyle Busch(i) | Toyota | 0 |
| 2 | 7 | 12 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Ford | 43 |
| 3 | 16 | 7 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | 41 |
| 4 | 8 | 77 | Parker Kligerman | Toyota | 40 |
| 5 | 11 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | 9 | 32 | Kyle Larson # | Chevrolet | 38 |
| 7 | 2 | 11 | Elliott Sadler | Toyota | 38 |
| 8 | 12 | 2 | Brian Scott | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 9 | 15 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 35 |
| 10 | 17 | 98 | Kevin Swindell # | Ford | 34 |
| 11 | 18 | 31 | Justin Allgaier | Chevrolet | 33 |
| 12 | 6 | 99 | Alex Bowman # | Toyota | 32 |
| 13 | 14 | 60 | Travis Pastrana | Ford | 31 |
| 14 | 22 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | 31 |
| 15 | 13 | 33 | Dakoda Armstrong(i) | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 16 | 5 | 30 | Nelson Piquet Jr. # | Chevrolet | 28 |
| 17 | 19 | 43 | Reed Sorenson | Ford | 27 |
| 18 | 10 | 19 | Mike Bliss | Toyota | 26 |
| 19 | 4 | 22 | Brad Keselowski(i) | Ford | 0 |
| 20 | 24 | 40 | Josh Wise | Chevrolet | 24 |
| 21 | 23 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Chevrolet | 24 |
| 22 | 21 | 5 | Brad Sweet | Chevrolet | 22 |
| 23 | 26 | 1 | Mike Wallace | Chevrolet | 21 |
| 24 | 34 | 44 | Hal Martin # | Toyota | 20 |
| 25 | 29 | 55 | Jamie Dick | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | 40 | 92 | Dexter Stacey # | Ford | 18 |
| 27 | 37 | 14 | Eric McClure | Toyota | 17 |
| 28 | 27 | 4 | Daryl Harr | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | 38 | 15 | Juan Carlos Blum # | Ford | 15 |
| 30 | 36 | 23 | Carl Long | Ford | 14 |
| 31 | 39 | 74 | Mike Harmon | Chevrolet | 13 |
| 32 | 33 | 24 | Blake Koch | Toyota | 12 |
| 33 | 35 | 0 | Jason White | Toyota | 11 |
| 34 | 3 | 20 | Brian Vickers | Toyota | 10 |
| 35 | 28 | 79 | Paulie Harraka | Ford | 9 |
| 36 | 30 | 27 | Michael McDowell(i) | Toyota | 0 |
| 37 | 20 | 10 | Jeff Green | Toyota | 7 |
| 38 | 31 | 42 | JJ Yeley(i) | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 39 | 25 | 47 | Scott Riggs(i) | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 40 | 32 | 52 | Joey Gase | Toyota | 4 |
Gordon calls team ‘fighters’ as they prepare for another climb toward Chase
Jeff Gordon has been in this position before. Unfortunately, it’s not the kind of position he or any other driver wants to be in just four races in the Sprint Cup books.
A year ago Gordon entered his native California sitting 23rd in points, looking at an early hole he had to climb out of to make the Chase. When he takes the green flag on Sunday, he again finds himself looking up. Gordon’s 21st in points, the lowest of the Hendrick Motorsports group as his three teammates sit in the top seven.
“Unfortunately, yes. We’re pretty far back,” said Gordon Friday in California. “We were running so strong last week and we didn’t run good at Vegas last year either. The only difference at Vegas was we actually still pulled off a 15th place finish.
“We weren’t so lucky this year with that. We’ve got ourselves in a hole that we’re going to have to climb ourselves out of. We’ve got a great team and fast racecars. We can certainly do it again, but it’s not something you want to do.”
Entering the 2013 season Gordon said his Drive to End Hunger team put their focus on trying to be as stable as they could. In order to protect their point position, they acknowledged they have to knock off consistent finishes. Instead, it’s a sense of déjà vu.
They had to scratch and claw their way into the 2012 Chase. Gordon didn’t win a race until July at Pocono, coming albeit aided when the leaders wrecked in turn one, giving him the lead as the rain came. The rest of the summer it was a fight with Kyle Busch for the final Chase spot, which Gordon took from Busch at Richmond. He then won the season finale in Homestead, but had been out of championship contention halfway through the Chase.
Time will tell if the 24 team finds themselves playing that role again. But four races into a new season the bad luck bug has already found them. Gordon had been leading late in last Sunday’s race at Bristol before he blew the right front tire and hit the wall, ending his day.
The performance was the best Gordon’s had this year, but not having a big enough hose to cool the tires led to him stressing the right front just enough that it didn’t hold up. A car he says that should have finished in the top five, wound up in the garage.
“I was not hard on the brakes at all. We went back and looked at all the other cars in our stable and I was probably using the least amount,” said Gordon. “It’s not a brake thing, it’s really more of just there is still heat being generated over there radiating things and it was too much. We can do a better job to make sure that doesn’t get up into the bead and cause too much heat.
“I was definitely harder on the right front on that run because I was out front, I had clean air and I was running faster lap times. It was putting more stress on that right front that ultimately caused it to blow.”
With Bristol now in the rear view mirror, Gordon finds his excitement in racing in California. He’s a former winner of the big two-mile track and reveals he loves the facility and being able to search around for different grooves. Even joking, that if he were to qualify in the rear of the field it wouldn’t bother him, he’s ready to go racing.
The good news, he qualified in the top 20. He’ll be able to see the leaders when the flag flies and he’s prepared for a fight, both on Sunday and as the season progresses.
“We’re fighters, we just don’t give up. We’re a much stronger team than we show in the results and this team is a tight-knit group,” Gordon said. “We went through this last year and came out strong. We just kind of hoped that momentum would carryover so we could start the season off strong.
“Don’t count us out, that’s for sure.”
