Five Things You May Not Know About Points Leader Sam Hornish Jr.

Five Things You May Not Know About Points Leader Sam Hornish Jr.

As the NASCAR Nationwide Series heads into a two-week break (the series will resume action on April 12 at Texas Motor Speedway for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300), we take this time to get you caught up on five things you might not have known about the current points leader Sam Hornish Jr., who holds a 28-point advantage over runner-up Regan Smith:
•    Prior to joining the NASCAR ranks, Hornish competed in the IndyCar Series, where he enjoyed great success. He is the only three-time champion in the IndyCar Series, having won titles in 2001 and 2002 with Panther Racing, and in 2006 with Team Penske. In 2006, he won the Indianapolis 500. If he holds onto the points lead in the NNS, he will be the first Indy 500 champion to win a title in any of NASCAR’s three national series. In eight seasons, Hornish won 19 races, and had 47 podiums and 10 poles in 116 starts.
•    At the Indianapolis 500 in 2006, Hornish won the "Scott Brayton Award" for best exemplifying the tenacity and friendliness of the late IndyCar driver Scott Brayton.
•    Hornish often gives back to his sport and his hometown of Defiance, Ohio. For five years, he participated in a charity bowling tournament during the fall Texas race weekend, held in conjunction with Speedway Children’s Charities, which raised more than $500,000. He was involved in the creation of a senior center in his hometown and the addition of a cardiac care center at Defiance Medical Center.
•    Aside from racing cars at high speeds on race tracks across the country, Hornish enjoys customizing cars and has quite an impressive collection. His collection includes a 1930 Model A Ford, 1951 Mercury, 1955 Chevrolet Del Ray, 1965 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, 1967 Chevrolet pick-up, 1977 Kenworth w900-A semi-truck and a 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z-06 that he received for winning the 2006 Indy 500.
•    Hornish has been around racing and race tracks for most of his life. He began racing karts at 11 and four years later won 19 of 55 races and the World Karting Association U.S. Grand National Championship (two consecutive seasons), as well as the Canadian Grand Championship.

Smith, Team Constantly Working on Car, Solid Season

Regan Smith drove his JR Motorsports No. 5 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet to a third-place finish at Auto Club Speedway last Saturday in the Royal Purple 300 to jump two positions in the points standings to second, 28 points behind leader Sam Hornish Jr.  
Don’t think for a second that Smith and his crew, led by crew chief Greg Ives, are taking their early season success for granted. Instead, they’re constantly working to find the right set-up for each race and race track. Their efforts have been rewarded with three top-10 finishes, and no finish lower than 14th, which came in the Daytona season opener.
"We’ve been working on stuff trying to find that package that works for us and almost essentially testing at the same time that we’re racing and trying to gain points," Smith said. "I’ve got a lot of confidence in this race team and a lot of confidence in the guys on the pit box calling the shots, and once we get a few things scienced out then hopefully we’re the car up there battling with the 54 (Kyle Busch) and the 12 (Hornish) and really making it interesting."
This season, Smith provides JR Motorsports something it hasn’t had since Brad Keselowski finished third in the standings in back-to-back seasons (2008 and 2009): a serious title contender.

Busch’s Resurgence Is A Return To Normalcy

The 2012 season was an anomaly for Kyle Busch. For the first time since 2003, the Las Vegas native went winless in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Five races into the 2013 season, Busch already has returned to his old self, adding to his series-leading 51 wins. After engine problems in the season opener at Daytona relegated the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide champion to a 32nd-place finish, he’s been almost unstoppable. He has three wins (Phoenix, Bristol, Auto Club) and a runner-up finish to points leader Sam Hornish Jr. at Las Vegas. 
Through five races this season, Busch has led no less than 13 laps in any event. He’s led 425 of the 970 laps run so far (44 percent). The next two drivers with the most laps led are Hornish (142 laps) and Brad Keselowski (64 laps), 15 and seven percent, respectively.
When the series returns to action in two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway, don’t look for any loss in momentum from Busch. In 14 visits to the 1.5-mile track, he has five consecutive wins and 12 top 10s.

NASCAR Nationwide Series Etc.

The youth movement evident in 2012 is still going strong in 2013 with three rookies in the top 15 in points. NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduate Kyle Larson, seventh in series points, leads Alex Bowman (10th) and Nelson Piquet Jr. (14th) in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings. … Travis Pastrana continues to impress in his first full-time season in the NNS. Through five races, he has two 10th-place finishes and has completed 958 of 970 laps (99 percent).