Sam Hornish Jr. Qualifies 17th at Infineon Raceway
June 20, 2008
SONOMA, Calif. (June 20, 2008) – Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the Penske Racing No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, will start the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway on Sunday in the 17th position.
Hornish will make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series road course debut this weekend at the 1.99-mile track in Sonoma, Calif. In three starts at Infineon Raceway in the IndyCar Series, Hornish earned one top-five and two top-10 finishes.
During qualifying, Hornish posted a fast lap time of 78.598 seconds at a speed of 91.147 miles per hour. The effort was strong enough to secure the Mobil 1 team the 17th starting position on Sunday and was nearly seven-tenths of a second faster than Hornish’s top speed in practice.
“I overdrove it a bit coming to the green flag and that made me mad at myself,” said Hornish. “The lap turned out better than I expected and I feel that the car has another couple of tenths left in it. I am very proud of this Mobil 1 team and I want to give them everything that the car is capable of out there.”
Coverage of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 will air live on the TNT television network beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT and will be broadcast live on PRN at 5 p.m. EDT.
Driver: Sam Hornish Jr.
Position: 17
Time: 78.598
Speed: 91.147
Pole: Kasey Kahne
Time: 77.740
Speed: 92.153
Penske Racing Teammates:
3. Kurt Busch
9. Ryan Newman