Despite patience, Sam Hornish Jr. in wreck with Sprint Cup points leader
Penske Racing's Sam Hornish Jr. was involved in the Jimmie Johnson crash early in the Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway. // Wayne Ebinger, NASCAR Scene
FORT WORTH, Texas – More than two hours after making contact Sunday with championship leader Jimmie Johnson at Texas Motor Speedway, Penske Racing's Sam Hornish Jr. stood with his hands on his head still seeming to be in disbelief.
“One of the things I've been trying to work on the last couple weeks is patience – doing what we can do to make it to the end,” he said during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Dickies 500. “And then we get run into from behind.”
Hornish said he was trying not to do too much, too early on the third lap of a 500-mile race. He had Hendrick Motorsports' Mark Martin in front of him and Johnson to his outside, so he decided to be patient and let things sort out.
But Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann slipped up the track into Hornish, who got sideways and spun Johnson.
“I got hit by the 00 [of Reutimann] and didn't even have time to correct before I got up into Jimmie,” Hornish said. “I don't ever want to feel like I've affected the outcome of the championship when I'm not in it.
“It's unfortunate, you get somebody behind you that's got a good car and runs into you on lap three. It's no fun.”
Hornish was especially frustrated that in light of his more conservative approach, a wreck still occurred. He said he felt bad for Johnson and said “you don’t want to take him out.”
“I got my head down a little bit this week because I had a really good car and all we wanted to do is make it so we could race the last three laps like that and not the first three,” Hornish said. “It's just, what do you do? Try to play the game the way you think it should be played and get hit on lap three. It sucks.”
