August 16th, 2009 
Journo He may no longer be the winningest driver in IRL history (that honor now belongs to Scott Dixon), but I don’t think Sam Hornish is complaining.
While Hornish hasn’t been lighting the world on fire, here and there he has had flashes of brilliance, especially in the last few races. Off the top I will say I’m taking a risk of speaking too soon, but I think he may be starting to figure things out.
Sam Hornish Jr. made a name for himself through seven seasons in the Indy Racing Leagues’ premier IndyCar Series. In that time Hornish amassed 19 wins, 62 top-fives and 80 top-10s. On top of that Hornish won three championships. When Hornish left the IndyCar Series in 2007 he was the winningest driver in the series’ short history. He held onto that title until a couple of weeks ago when Scott Dixon surpassed it.
Hornish joined Penske Racing in 2004, and earned eight of his IndyCar wins with the team. Team owner Roger Penske, one of Hornish’s strongest advocates began preparing him for NASCAR in 2006 with two Nationwide starts.
Arguably Hornish’s transition hasn’t been an easy one. Unlike many of his younger counterparts in the sport, Hornish much like fellow open wheeler Juan Pablo Montoya, had very little preparation time in the lower NASCAR series. Before beginning full-time in the Sprint Cup Series in 2008 Hornish had 11 Nationwide starts with a best finish of 15th and one ARCA start.
With very little stock car experience under his belt, Hornish began Sprint Cup racing full time in 2008. Through the season he failed to qualify for two events, Talladega and Homestead, and had a season high finish of 13th.
While 2009 has been by no means a breakout year for Hornish, he has made some clear progress. Through 23 races this season Hornish has two top-fives, six top-10s and sits 26th in the points. He has improved his average start by 5.4 positions to 22.6, and his average finish by 6.3 positions to 23.3.
In just the last three races Hornish has two top-fives and might have three if not for his violent wreck on lap 61 at Watkins Glen two weeks ago.
As I said at the top, this post may be the cart before the horse, but I like what I’m seeing out of Hornish. I have been a skeptic of the open wheel guys, but just like Montoya, I think Hornish may be finding his stride. And at just 30 years old Hornish has a lot of racing years ahead of him. He is definitely someone to keep an eye on.
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I wrote a comment similar to the one I am writing here, on another site just now.
NASCAR is so much more interesting to me now, because I think we are truly seeing the younger guys (i.e. non-’superstars’) get more and more consistent…Vickers, Hornish, Montoya, Maybe put Bowyer there, coz he’s been up and down…hmm…Logano…
I like to see new guys racing for the win week after week. I am really looking forward to the Chase, especially if JPM and Vickers get in. Of course I want JG to win another championship, but these guys are gonna make it fun! Let Busch, Edwards and Hamlin keep playing in Nationwide, and we’ll give them a cookie when they win races.
Oh and Gililand and Menard still suck
Of all the rule changes NASCAR has made, I think the no testing rule has done the most to even the playing field. And turned to where driving skills play a more important role.
I agree with Andrew G that it is a lot more fun this year seeing a bunch of new faces not only win but finish in the top 10 week after week.
Sam and JPM are 2 very talented drivers. Penske and Ganassi both see this, and are being paid back, unlike Rick Hendrick, who is still hoping Dale Jr. figures out some of the same things.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as Zieke, and say that Hendrick isn’t being paid back by Jr. But I have always been a big fan of Sam (I love all my IRL crossovers, Tony and Robby etc!) and am just glad that Roger (and Chip with JPM for that matter) gave these guys the chance and opportunities to succeed. Especially without testing, it would have been easy to say, wow you had a terrible first year, seeya!
Fast is fast…period. Sam’s IRL success (and it’s not intended to be a knock) came after the IRL-Champ Car split. He was a great driver in at times mediocre equipment prior to Penske (i.e. fast is fast)…but so were a lot of other guys who have tried recently but haven’t been given the patience and equipment required to see the success Hornish (and JPM, Ambrose, Reuitiman)is now seeing. They require even MORE patience since the testing ban was invoked. It’s good to see them do well and be consistently good, instead of meteoric flashes of brilliance, but otherwise also rans. Congrats to Vickers and Team RB…Ryan Pemberton’s a cool guy…met him the Saturday before the Glen race and deserves some success too.