CUP: Hornish Jr.'s Stock Finally Rising

Sprint Cup

CUP: Hornish Jr.’s Stock Finally Rising

Sam Hornish, Jr. the least-hyped of the recent open-wheel defectors is figuring this stock car business out...

Holly Cain | http://www.Fanhouse.com | Posted August 06, 2009 Long Pond, PA

Fanhouse.com's Holly Cain. (Image: SPEED)

Sam Hornish Jr. climbed out of his No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Monday afternoon in Pocono, Pa., allowed himself to crack a smile and looked forward to receiving a call from his boss, Roger Penske.

Fourth place.

It wasn't exactly cause for celebration for Hornish, who owns three IndyCar championships and an Indianapolis 500 ring. But his hard-fought finish was a career best and gives him five top-10 Sprint Cup efforts.

It was progress.

"Well, yes it was [progress],'' Hornish allowed in a telephone interview with FanHouse this week. "But ultimately I want to win. We're getting closer and closer and I do see the light at the end of the tunnel.''

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It's a good indication that Hornish the most-decorated, least-hyped of the recent open-wheel defectors is figuring this stock car business out. It's time to go and he knows it.

It's been a rough-and-tumble transition from the IndyCar Series to NASCAR's top Sprint Cup ranks for Hornish, who hasn't gone this long (nearly two full seasons) without a win since he moved from go-karts to Formula Fords as a teenager back in the late-1990s.

As accomplished but less-heralded than other marquee names to convert from open-wheel to NASCAR in the last few seasons, Hornish made the full-time move to NASCAR in 2008 -- the same time as Dario Franchitti and on the heels of Juan Pablo Montoya.

They are both flashy commodities and headline grabbers compared to Hornish, a quiet 30-year old from Bryan, Ohio.

Franchitti, a Scot whose Cup Series ride only lasted a half season, walks Hollywood red carpets with his wife, actress Ashley Judd. Montoya came to NASCAR just after returning from a respectful Formula One foray around the globe.

Hornish, the All-American "kid next door" likes to go bowling in his spare time and still lives near his parents in rural northwestern Ohio, where he is a local hero who has donated almost $2 million dollars to projects, including a senior center in honor of his late grandmother.

When it was time for Hornish to make the high-profile move to NASCAR, it didn't receive nearly the attention of the others despite having a resumé that stacks up to most of open-wheel's best. But Hornish doesn't care about those kind of things. His record speaks for itself.

He has three times the number of IndyCar titles as Tony Stewart and Franchitti and just as many Indy 500 wins (one) and Formula One world championships (zero) as Montoya.

Two years after Hornish left the IndyCar Series, Scott Dixon has just tied his all-time win mark of 19. Two years removed from competition, Hornish still has led more laps than anyone in that series' history.

This is a prodigy who earned two World Karting Association (WKA) national championships, including a 19-win season in 1994, when he finished in the top-five 43 times in 55 starts.

Since making the difficult technical transition to stock cars, Hornish has often been a punch line, his car a punching bag on-track. And people forget how accomplished a racer he is.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Holly Cain

Fanhouse.com

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