Hornish scores 18th-place finish, moves into top 35 in owner points
By SceneDaily Staff
Monday, June 02, 2008
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DOVER, Del. – Sam Hornish Jr. needed another solid outing. Narrowly outside the top 35 in owner points, the Penske Racing driver needed to race his way into Sunday's Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway and then stay out of trouble.
The former open-wheel star did just that. Hornish finished 18th in the race, a performance strong enough to vault him three spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings to 33rd in the owner standings. He and his team are now locked into the field for next weekend's race at Pocono Raceway.
Hornish also took the top rookie honors in the racing, moving him into a tie for the rookie of the year award with Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s Regan Smith.
Hornish's effort looked to be in danger at one point when he sped on pit road, an infraction he chastised himself for after the race.
“Mine was just stupid," he said. "I was watching the No. 38 car [of David Gilliland] in my mirror, and when I looked back to see where he was at to see if I could move up, I looked down, and I was over the speed limit, and I knew that we were going to get called. I just should have worried about myself at that point in time. Nothing he did wrong, it’s just a tough pit road to get on and off of, especially on just because you’ve got a lot of speed there on the concrete, and you come down to a flat asphalt sealed surface, three things that are going against you when you come off of concrete.
"It definitely made the car petty loose getting on there, but I felt like we did a pretty good job with it. We picked up some spots when other people stopped and when we all stepped and kind of shuffled around, so I thought that I was doing a pretty good job. I’m just real happy."
Hornish said that he thinks the team might have been in the top 15 if not for the penalty, but he was pleased overall with the performance. He thinks he and his group are improving. That could enhance the team's results when it returns to tracks for the second time later this season.
"I feel like we’ve always got a big learning progress, and we’ve got more things to learn, but we just need to keep working on it, figuring out what the changes are, and I need to be able to put those in my mental bank and move forward with it," he said. "I’m just real happy that we’re finally starting to get the finishes that we should be getting.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Sam Hornish Jr.
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