Hornish Jr. to Start Eighth in Sprint Showdown
May 16, 2008
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 16, 2008) – Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the Penske Racing No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, qualified in eighth place for the Sprint Showdown on Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
The Sprint Showdown is the qualifying race held prior to the All-Star Race with the top two finishers and one fan vote recipient advancing directly to the million-dollar main event.
Hornish Jr. was the third of 28 competitors to make a qualifying attempt at the 1.5-mile quad-oval. He posted a fast lap time of 29.364 seconds at a speed of 183.899 miles per hour securing the eighth starting position in the Sprint Showdown on Saturday night.
“The nice thing about a non-points event is that you get to race no matter what,” said Hornish Jr. “The big thing is that we really want to make sure that we do the right things tomorrow. We are going to push it in the Showdown because we want to advance to the All-Star Race, but we’ll be smart out there.”
Fans can vote for Hornish Jr. and the No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge team as many times as they like at http://www.nascar.com/promos/allstar/vote/ until 7 p.m. EDT on May 17.
Coverage of the Sprint Showdown/All-Star Race will air live on SPEED at 7 p.m. EDT and will be broadcast live on MRN Radio at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
Driver: Sam Hornish Jr.
Position: 8
Time: 29.364
Speed: 183.899
Pole: Elliott Sadler
Time: 29.187
Speed: 185.014