Hornish Finishes Second at Auto Club Speedway
March 24, 2013
THE RACE
The Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway (two-mile oval, Fontana, Calif.)
THE RESULTS
The No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang
Start Position: 7
Finish Position: 2
Status: Running
Current Driver Points Position: 1
THE RACE REVIEW
· Hornish started from the seventh position on the grid after lapping the two-mile oval in 40.852 seconds at, 176.246 miles an hour, during Saturday qualifications at Auto Club Speedway.
· During the opening laps of the race it was evident that Hornish had a strong Wurth Ford Mustang as he advanced to second-place by lap 6.
· Hornish would lead for the first of five times at lap 41.
· For the first half of the event Hornish reported that his Penske Ford was too loose on exit and he needed better driver off of the corner, yet he ran consistently in the top-three.
· Over the course of the 150-lap event Hornish accrued over 10 of the fastest laps of the race.
· Hornish led the race five separate times for a total of 28 laps.
· With three laps remaining in the race Hornish, while giving it everything he had in an attempt to catch race leader Kyle Busch, made light contact with the outside wall in Turn 1. He was able to continue and went on to finish in the second position.
· With the result the No. 12 Penske Ford Mustang has five top-seven finishes to start the season.
· Hornish and the No. 12 Wurth Ford team lead the series standings with a 28 point lead over second-place Reagan Smith.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
“It feels really good, as we started off the year just the way we wanted. We have made sure that we took care of the car throughout the first five races as well as we could. We wanted to get out of the box well, and I preached that to the team in the off-season. We wanted to get through the first five races in good standing, and I am really happy with the way Greg Erwin and the guys on the team have been performing and the job they are doing for me. Everyone is working together, and we have a bunch of new guys and some guys that we have had on the team for a while that are kind of the ones that hold everything together and show them how it needs to be done. Everybody works well together, and I am proud of everyone on this Wurth Ford Mustang.”
“We just didn’t have enough to beat Kyle (Busch) today. We ran hard and got the lead on the restart a couple times. He would run real hard on the first 50 to 75-percent of the run and slide the car around and wear it out, and then we would catch him the last 25-percent. We were doing it again on the last run and I just got within about 10 car lengths of him and got greedy and drove it in too hard and got into the wall. We want to win races as bad as we want to win the points. When there was still smoke in the car halfway down the back straightaway I was worried we would end up with a flat tire and I would end up looking real bad. I am glad things worked out the way they did.”
The Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway (two-mile oval, Fontana, Calif.)
THE RESULTS
The No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang
Start Position: 7
Finish Position: 2
Status: Running
Current Driver Points Position: 1
THE RACE REVIEW
· Hornish started from the seventh position on the grid after lapping the two-mile oval in 40.852 seconds at, 176.246 miles an hour, during Saturday qualifications at Auto Club Speedway.
· During the opening laps of the race it was evident that Hornish had a strong Wurth Ford Mustang as he advanced to second-place by lap 6.
· Hornish would lead for the first of five times at lap 41.
· For the first half of the event Hornish reported that his Penske Ford was too loose on exit and he needed better driver off of the corner, yet he ran consistently in the top-three.
· Over the course of the 150-lap event Hornish accrued over 10 of the fastest laps of the race.
· Hornish led the race five separate times for a total of 28 laps.
· With three laps remaining in the race Hornish, while giving it everything he had in an attempt to catch race leader Kyle Busch, made light contact with the outside wall in Turn 1. He was able to continue and went on to finish in the second position.
· With the result the No. 12 Penske Ford Mustang has five top-seven finishes to start the season.
· Hornish and the No. 12 Wurth Ford team lead the series standings with a 28 point lead over second-place Reagan Smith.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
“It feels really good, as we started off the year just the way we wanted. We have made sure that we took care of the car throughout the first five races as well as we could. We wanted to get out of the box well, and I preached that to the team in the off-season. We wanted to get through the first five races in good standing, and I am really happy with the way Greg Erwin and the guys on the team have been performing and the job they are doing for me. Everyone is working together, and we have a bunch of new guys and some guys that we have had on the team for a while that are kind of the ones that hold everything together and show them how it needs to be done. Everybody works well together, and I am proud of everyone on this Wurth Ford Mustang.”
“We just didn’t have enough to beat Kyle (Busch) today. We ran hard and got the lead on the restart a couple times. He would run real hard on the first 50 to 75-percent of the run and slide the car around and wear it out, and then we would catch him the last 25-percent. We were doing it again on the last run and I just got within about 10 car lengths of him and got greedy and drove it in too hard and got into the wall. We want to win races as bad as we want to win the points. When there was still smoke in the car halfway down the back straightaway I was worried we would end up with a flat tire and I would end up looking real bad. I am glad things worked out the way they did.”