Hornish Earns Top-Five in Dollar General 300

September 16, 2013


THE RACE

Dollar General 300 presented by Coca-Cola at Chicagoland Speedway (1.5-mile speedway, Joliet, Ill.)
Saturday, September 14, 2013

THE RESULTS

The No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang
Driven By Sam Hornish
Start Position: 4
Finish Position: 3
Status: Running
Current Driver's Points Position: 1    
 

THE RACE REVIEW

· Hornish started the race from the outside of the second row based on his qualifying effort earlier in the day. He lapped the 1.5 mile speedway in 30.452 seconds at an average speed of 177.328 mph.

· Over the opening laps of the race, Hornish lost a couple spots, but would settle into the top-five as the field spread out.

· Early in the race, Hornish radioed that his Wurth Ford was tight on corner entry and too free on corner exit.

· A lap 23 caution allowed crew chief Greg Erwin and the Wurth Ford crew to make adjustments to improve the handling of the No. 12 machine.

· Hornish restarted in the seventh spot at lap 28 and drove into the top-three by lap 30.

· Hornish would maintain a constant presence in the top-three for much of the remainder of the race. At one point, he briefly challenged eventual winner, Kyle Busch for the lead, but was not able to make the pass.

· A lap 183 caution set up the final restart of the event during which Hornish fell back to the fourth position, but he was able to make his way back to third before the checkered flag to score his sixth top-three finish in the last nine races.

· The result allowed the No. 12 team to expand its lead in the series standings. They now hold a 17 point advantage over second-place competitor, Austin Dillon.
   

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

SAM HORNISH JR.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS IS BOILING DOWN TO A TWO MAN DEAL WITH YOU AND AUSTIN?
“There is still a long time to go, what seven races? A lot can happen. We have to be smart about how we run it and all those things. One flat tire can lose you a bunch of points. I feel like I was pretty excited about where we were at about lap 160 with how we were running. I think Austin was seventh, and we were running second and catching the leader a little bit. All of a sudden the yellow comes out and we were running third, and he was second. We worked real hard to get back around there at the end, and I just wish we had a little more for the short run. Overall it was a good day for us, the Wurth Ford Mustang team gave me a fast car and great work in the pits. We are doing what we have to do.”