Sam Hornish Jr. Battles to a Top-5 Finish at Phoenix
November 10, 2013
THE RACE
Service Master 200 at Phoenix International Raceway
Saturday, November 9, 2013
THE RESULTS
The No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Ford
Driven By: Sam Hornish Jr.
Start Position: 6
Finish Position: 5
Status: Running
Current Drivers Position: 2
THE RACE REVIEW
• Sam Hornish Jr. and the No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang began the race from sixth-position.
• Early in the race, Hornish reported that his Penske Ford was too free on corner entry and tight in the center of the turn.
• The veteran driver held steady in the top-10 as the race ran without a caution for the first half of the 200 lap event.
• At lap 105 the first caution of the day bunched the field and allowed the Alliance Truck Parts crew to make adjustments to the ill-handling machine.
• As the race progressed, Hornish radioed to crew chief, Greg Erwin that the No. 12 machine was still too free on entry and too tight through the center of the turn.
• At lap 132, while the leaders pitted, the call was made to keep the Ford Mustang on the racing surface to gain track position. The move resulted in Hornish advancing 11 positions up to second-place.
• Hornish battled his way over the rest of the race, dropping as low as sixth and then climbing back to fifth.
• Over the closing laps, Hornish held off a spirited charge by Matt Kenseth to finish in fifth place.
• With one race remaining, Hornish and the No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts team maintain the second position in the championship standings just eight markers behind leader, Austin Dillon.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
SAM HORNISH JR.
BIG CALL STAYING OUT AND GETTING TRACK POSITION
“We were talking too much on the radio and the call might have been different than what happened. We were back and forth and it was all gonna be on how many cars came ahead of us and then by talking about it too much we just decided to stay. It really worked out well for us. It’s too bad we got all those yellows starting off that run because it just allowed a bunch of guys to get around us on the first couple laps when our tires were cold and being stuck on the outside a fair amount of time, but the car was much better than yesterday. It wasn’t a fifth-place car, so to be able to get a fifth-place out of it was really good. We got to race pretty hard with Matt at the end of it and he raced me clean. I appreciate that for sure.”
IT’S AN EIGHT-POINT DEFICIT GOING TO HOMESTEAD.
“Yeah, I still want to look at it because we should have led a lap through all that green-flag pit stop stuff. I don’t know how we ended up not leading it, but eight points is surmountable. We know that, so we’re just gonna go and have a bunch of fun and see what we can do.”