LEXINGTON, Ohio -- Coming to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course brings back childhood memories for Sam Hornish Jr.
"For me, it means a lot to get to race in my home state," Hornish told NASCAR.com. "I'm just glad to be here first and foremost because I had the opportunity to be a kid and sit right across the track from us here in Turn 1, riding down and spend the day with my dad watching the IndyCar race and Trans-Am and stuff like that."
Hornish, who hails from Defiance, Ohio, and now lives in Napoleon, Ohio, is just about two hours from home for Saturday's NASCAR XFINITY Series Mid-Ohio Challenge (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The veteran driver is off to a strong start this weekend behind the wheel of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet as he led final practice and was second in Friday's opening practice.
Hornish has raced before at the road course, running an IndyCar race here in 2007 and finishing 14th, driving for Roger Penske. The 37-year-old also has two XFINITY starts at Mid-Ohio, with a third-place finish in the inaugural event in 2013 and a pole in 2014 (before engine issues sent him to a 30th-place finish).
Besides being close to home, Hornish has a general affection for the 2.258-mile track.
"I love this track because you have elevation changes, you have some high speed corners, where it requires a lot of brakes," Hornish said.
"And to me this is a little bit of a mix of what you would get in the (Sprint) Cup Series with having Sonoma and Watkins Glen (as road courses). You have some high speed but you also have some things where you are pressed to the hills and you got to keep the tires on the car."
The Mid-Ohio start comes as a little bit of a surprise as AJ Allmendinger, who won the first XFINITY race here in 2013, had been announced as the driver for this race back in June. However, a scheduling conflict for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular led to Hornish getting the start.
Saturday's race marks the third start of the year for Hornish with a fourth start (third with RCR) coming at Kentucky in September. Hornish has one win on the season as he piloted the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to Victory Lane at Iowa in June (filling in for the sidelined Matt Tifft). His second 2016 showing, also at Iowa, resulted in a sixth-place effort.
"The fact that I got added for this one when they had the opportunity to be able to do it, that's great," Hornish said. "We knew that it was a limited schedule for this year. Hopefully, there will be some more stuff I'll be able to do next year."