Hornish gives Penske one more Daytona 500 surprise

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- On a night when Roger Penske finally got to Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway and two of his Sprint Cup drivers ran 1-2 in the Daytona 500, the car owner said he was almost as thrilled with his third driver who finished 15th.

That was Sam Hornish Jr., driver of Penske's No. 77 Dodge. A rookie in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, Hornish finally displayed in a stock car the type of driving talent that enabled him to become the only three-time champion in the open-wheel Indy Racing League.

Dodge tough

The manufacturer claimed six of the top eight finishing positions in the Daytona 500.

• Complete story, click here
• Caraviello: Penske fills void
• Busch drafts Newman to win

After struggling badly to make Cup races last year -- he made only two, finishing 30th at Phoenix and 37th at Homestead -- Hornish admitted that he surprised even himself by running in the top 10 during much of Sunday's race.

"I was really happy and a little bit surprised, obviously, to be running up in the top six most of the first 100 laps," Hornish said. "I wish they would have started the race about two hours sooner, so it still could have been sunny out [at the end]. If the sun had never gone down, we would have had a better chance. Once the sun goes down, everybody starts getting more and more evenly matched up -- because there's not all that worry about the tires sliding around so much because of the heat."

Hornish admitted he still has much to learn.

"When it was stretched out earlier on in the race, I was really happy with the car and where we were at," Hornish said. "I made one mistake in pit lane where I slid through the box and had to back up. That cost us about 15 spots. I think we dropped from eighth to about 23rd. The whole rest of the race we had to play catch-up.

"With it getting cooler out, the handling came back to a lot of other people -- whereas when it was hot, it was harder for everybody to keep the car on the bottom. ... It was a learning experience, to be sure."

Crew chief Chris Carrier said that he began being surprised by Hornish during this past Thursday's Gatorade Duel, the 150-mile qualifying race that determined where Hornish was to start in Sunday's race. He started 19th, and quickly moved into the top 10.

"He shocked me Thursday, to be quite honest with you. And I don't want to say that negatively," said Carrier, a longtime NASCAR veteran who during his career has worked with the likes of the late Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Allison, Harry Gant, Joe Nemechek and Ward Burton. "I've just been around this so long, I've seen a lot of young guys. I've seen a lot of guys with talent come along, and a lot of guys from different forms of racing who try to make it in this sport.

"Back in January when we were testing, people asked me about it -- and I said his learning curve is going to go up and down a little bit, and that then somewhere along the day that learning curve would get ramped up fast. I just hope I live to see the day, because this guy is going to be something."

Carrier may have lived to see the day Sunday, although it wasn't all smooth sailing. Late in the race, Hornish may have caused two-time defending Cup points champion Jimmie Johnson to spin out, relegating Johnson to an eventual 27th-place finish. It was difficult to tell if it was Hornish's fault, and even he admitted he wasn't certain.

"It was kind of a lot of people battling for the same piece of real estate," Hornish said. "I thought I was doing a pretty good job of keeping it down on the yellow line. But they get pretty loose there and there's not a whole lot of room coming off the corner -- so if I got him turned around, I'm really sorry about that. It was just one of those things."

In the end, Hornish was pleased to finish in 15th as Penske Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch finished 1-2, giving Roger Penske his first Daytona 500 victory in 23 tries to go along with his 14 Indianapolis 500 triumphs, including one by Hornish in 2006.

"My teammate got to Victory Lane. For all the success that Roger has had in Indy cars, now he's got his first Daytona 500," Hornish said. "I said a long time ago when I decided I wanted to come over here and do this, one of the big reasons was because I wanted to be a part of trying to help him achieve this. Any small part I had in that [Sunday] or over the past couple months, I'm really happy to be a part of that and I'm super happy for the team."

Likewise, Penske was obviously happy for his newest Sprint Cup driver.

"One of my biggest thrills [Sunday] was to see the job Sam did," Penske said afterward, even as he celebrated Newman's victory. "He drove up there and hung in and was really racing. On the radio I was saying easy, easy, because I'm used to saying that [to him] at Indy, because he always wants to go."

Now he'll go to California, where Hornish said he would like to build on Sunday's success.

"I'm going to need a lot of days like this this year. But I'm happy," Hornish said. "I would like to do better, for sure. I'm not usually one who is happy with second, let alone 15th. But that's the way it was [Sunday]. I just hope I can continue to drive smart and make good decisions.

"My goal for this race was the same as what my goal for the season is, and that's to stay in the top 20 so I can be in the top 20 in points at the end of the year."