Sam Hornish Jr. celebrates after winning the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Showdown on May 16, 2009 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

What he lacks in flair, he makes up for in substance. That's why the legendary Penske hired him in 2004. Two years later Hornish delivered a championship and Penske's 14th Indy 500 victory. And that's when the pair agreed to let Hornish eventually take the next logical but difficult step in his career -- NASCAR. What more did he have to accomplish in open-wheel?

Hornish made only a handful of Nationwide and ARCA Series starts in 2007 before a full-time Cup Series gig last year. With the testing ban this season, it's been harder to make up ground as driver or team. Few realize that his No. 77 team wasn't an intact operation simply moved up from the Nationwide Series or moved over from another driver.

"We started from the ground up,'' Hornish said. "It was like finding the right pieces of the puzzle wherever we could find them. We've changed some pieces since then and I feel like we have a great team, a lot of young guys, a lot of people learning right with me.''

That learning curve has been steep. Last year, he had only two top-20 finishes and failed to qualify for the season-ender at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

He's 27th in the points standings entering Sunday's race in Watkins Glen, N.Y., but has 10 finishes of 30th or worse to go along with his five top-10s. That inconsistency frustrates Hornish most. Each time he's had a top-10 finish, the next race he's finished 29th or worse -- often a victim of tough luck.

"This season there have been quite a few times I felt like he deserved a better finish and something happened out of his control, something would just go wrong,'' Penske Racing president Tim Cindric said. "This weekend was a case where opportunity finally came and he took advantage of it.

"You keep knocking on the door and eventually it's going to open. At the same time, a top-five is great but that should be the expectation not the exception and Sam won't be happy until that happens.''

Hornish's competitors are taking notice of his improved runs and he feels like he's slowly gained the respect needed for the side-by-side give-and-take or to be a drafting partner.

His boss is pleased, too. Penske told reporters earlier this year that he expected a top-25 finish in the points standings for Hornish.

"This is the year, he's got to make it,'' Penske said in April. "Sam's got a lot of pressure on him and 1 of 43 [drivers] is a lot different than 1 in 20. But we have all the confidence in the world in Sam.''

Fortunately for Hornish he also possesses something as necessary as his bosses' blessing and pure talent: great perspective.

"It takes time,'' Hornish said. "I knew it was going to be difficult, but I also knew I wasn't going to give up."

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

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