Sam Hornish, Jr. turns in memorable All-Star performance

by Matt Mercer, Special To Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I'm the new guy at Bench Racing and I'm supposed to be the younger perspective. I'm the guy behind The Catfish Show, which you can access through the links on the right.

May 19, 2008 11:51 am CDT 3 Comments

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Saturday night, Sam Hornish, Jr. turned in an impressive performance in both the Sprint Showdown and the All-Star Challenge. Calling Hornish’s performance thus far in the 2008 season rocky would be an understatement. He ran well in the Daytona 500, for a good part of the first half of the race, he ran in the top 5, before finishing a respectable 15th. However, his next several performances were lacking, due to his continued inexperience. His best run after Daytona came at Phoenix, a 20th place effort. Not the stuff of legend, for sure. On Saturday night, he changed that – and may just change people’s minds that have been dismissive of his stock car exploits, myself included.

It was not just the fact that Sam ran well Saturday night, it was the way he ran with the car turned so far right, I’m calling them “Limbaugh” setups for now on. In the Showdown, Hornish made the high line work, and despite spinning his tires and falling back a few spots, he darn near won the thing, instead he didn’t risk his equipment and let A.J. Allmendinger take first. When the All-Star Challenge started, he banged the wall pretty good, and went down 3 laps at one point. Since apparently the Lucky Dog is used in the race (unbeknownst to my knowledge) Hornish got back on the lead lap, and ate up the field en route to finishing a strong 7th… and it could have been more if the race had gone longer. Hornish had a car that could pass, something we did not see enough of in the race. I don’t know if it was tires or what. That Kasey Kahne could have an average car most the night, take no tires for the last segment, and drive away from the field worries me about how the 600 will play out. Maybe its just me, but this race wasn’t up to the level Atlanta and Texas were.

Kahne will get the headlines in the papers and the TV time this week, but if you’re like me and obsessed with everything about the sport, you saw what I saw: Sam Hornish, Jr. showing flashes of what could be in the future.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Kasey Kahne, NASCAR, Sam Hornish Jr, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: A.J. Allmendinger, All-Star Challenge, Jr., Kasey Kahne, Lowes Motor Speedway, NASCAR, Sam Hornish, Sprint Cup, Sprint Showdown

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Comments

3 Responses to “Sam Hornish, Jr. turns in memorable All-Star performance”

Charlie Turner on May 19th, 2008 12:07 pm

Hornish’ s performance was a surprise. A happy one for me, ’cause I admit to pulling for Sam. I thought he might just win that first race Saturday. I agree that the results since Daytona haven’t been great. But that Penske team hasn’t done much since the 500. The thing I like about Sam is there are never any excuses. He just keeps working. I still say that if you tried making a living betting against Roger Penske - well good luck with that. I think Hornish will make it.

I like the “Limbaugh” set up lable too. I may have to steal that. With attribution of course.
Marc on May 19th, 2008 5:07 pm

Careful Matt, any praise however slight serves as a draw for every open wheeler in NASCAR hater from miles around.

Standby, the floodgates may have been opened.
Steve Wronkowicz on May 19th, 2008 8:56 pm

Matt–

Maybe it was the group we were hanging with on Saturday night (many of the ARCA ReMax and Lincoln Welders Truck Series team at The Toledo Speedway Bar & Grill), but there was a huge backing for Hornish when he was making his move in the Sprint Showdown. Maybe it had something to do with the NW Ohio crowd. If Sam can get things going in the right direction and show some steady improvement, he will have set himself up right.

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