Hornish Jr.'s IRL career up in cloud of dust
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When Sam Hornish Jr.'s car spun off track into the outside retaining wall in yesterday's IRL event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, it cost him more than just a shot at his first ever road course win. Although his car was undamaged, he lost a lap, and the subsequent 14th place finish has put him 129 point out of 1st place in the point's race with just 5 races remaining. He was already a long shot in a race that has been dominated by Andretti Green Racing's Dario Franchitti and Target Chip Ganassi's Scott Dixon, now, the poor finish leaves him in 5th place. All but eliminated.
However, for the three-time series champion this not only marks the end of this year's championship run, but likely the end of his meaningful open-wheeled racing career. (Last week it was made all but official that Hornish would run for Penske's Nextel Cup Series Team next year.) With 2 of the 5 remaining races at road courses (Infineon Raceway and Belle Isle) Hornish's only focus will be to thumb his nose at the IRL one last time by accomplishing the only thing he has yet to accomplish in the series, that elusive road course victory.
When the start of yesterday's IRL race was pre-empted from ABC by (yawn) golf, I logged onto Indycar.com to see which of the World Wide Leader's affiliate networks would be airing the race. On the live chat on the side of the screen, finishing a distant 2nd to fans bitching about ABC was a faction of fans saying some things I prefer not to print about Hornish Jr. moving to NASCAR. Now, it shouldn't have, but the angst did catch me a bit by surprise (then I am again both a Hornish fan and a NASCAR fan).
Before I go any further, and am dismissed by open wheel racing lovers as an ignorant NASCAR fan let me first state my case as an INDYCAR fan. As a child I grew up on the Indianapolis 500, my favorite driver, Mario Andretti. As a 6-year-old I watched my first 500 back in 1987. Andretti would lead 170 laps that day, before being bitten by the famous Andretti curse in the form of an electrical failure. Of course, at the time I didn't understand anything past the point of, "Mario's car broke." Despite the heartbreak, a racing fan was born that day.
I continued to root for an aging Mario up until his retirement in 1994, at which time I began rooting for Canadian sensation Jacques Villeneuve who was on his way to the rookie of the year award. (Don't ask me why I never rooted for Michael, I just didn't.)
That same year, 1994, another phenomenon happened. I heard that for the first time, NASCAR, was going to be racing at the Brickyard. Now, at the time I had never paid much attention to this series, (I thought they looked too much like my dad's car) but by racing at INDY, "they had my attention."
Watching the inaugural Brickyard 400 I became enamored with a brightly colored car that ran up front most of the day, and according to the commentators was piloted by a talented second year driver. By midway through the race I had decided that this was going to be my guy in NASCAR. That driver would go on to win the race that day, and of course his name is Jeff Gordon.
I would continue to follow both series for the next year, and what a year it was. 1995 saw Jeff Gordon win his first Winston Cup Championship (that's what they called it then) and Villeneuve recovered all the way from a two lap penalty to win the Indianapolis 500.
Of course the bliss of 1995 would soon turn to the agony of 1996 when my love for open wheeled racing would be dealt two crushing blows. The first being Villeneuve's exodus to Formula 1, a series that was impossible to follow in the US at the time. (Remember Mario Andretti had just retired 2 years ago, I wasn't ready to have to pick another favorite driver yet.) The second, of course the infamous CART/INDY split. Now, I was left with not only not getting to watch my favorite driver in the Indy 500, but not getting to see any of the drivers I had even heard of.
Racing fans that day were stuck with the choice between watching a bunch of no names run the greatest spectacle in motor sports, or the best drivers run in some contrived competing event that I don't remember the name of and won't waste the time to look up. Like many racing fans that day, I chose option C, and watched NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600.
Angry with the powers that be in open-wheeled racing I became a full-time stock car fan, rooting Jeff Gordon on to consecutive championships in 1997 and 1998.
Other than an occasional attempt at trying to get back into the 500 I didn't watch open wheeled racing again until 2001. That season, a couple of things finally brought my attention back to Indianapolis. The first being when I heard that Penske was back. Although, I was never a Penske fan, to me they were what Indy was all about. It brought credibility back to the series.
The second being when I read a newspaper article about a 21-year-old American driver who was making noise in the points championship despite an under funded team. Now, "they had my attention." That driver would go on to win the championship that year and repeat the following season as well.
That driver is, of course, Sam Hornish Jr. which for those of you whom I haven't lost yet brings us back to where we started. That Hornish is leaving the series and INDY fans aren't the least bit happy about it.
The bottom line is that this is no different than the case with Villeneuve back in 1996. He won is 500, and felt like he needed a bigger and better racing series to prove himself in. The only difference being that today for most of those drivers NASCAR is a more viable option than Formula 1.
If you are still wondering why Hornish would want to leave the IRL, my question is why wouldn't he? Hornish has 3 championships, won the 500 in 2006, and is the series’ all-time leader in victories and laps lead. With the exception of a road course victory there is literally nothing left to accomplish there. He has even proven he can win with middling equipment (Panther Racing) and with the best (Penske).
Then there is the matter of respect. With all that Hornish has accomplished he isn't even one of the three most visible stars in the sport. Those would of course be Danica Patrick (0 career victories), Marco Andretti (more times on his roof than top-5's this year), and Ashley Judd (Dario Franchitti's wife). Hornish has three times as many championships as this trio has combined victories (1 by Andretti).
Just a thought here, but don't you think that 7 years ago when you had a 21-year-old phenom, who is the son of a race car driver, driving for an under funded team, that was born in Ohio (the heart of open wheeled racing country), and running for the championship that you would want to promote that guy?
Of course, Tony George and the idiots that be in the IRL's marketing department never figured this out. Now, a guy who old school Indy Car fans rooted for is on his way to the competition. Another swing and miss, but this has been going on for more than a decade now. Say what you want about NASCAR and the France family, but they never would have allowed a talent like this to go unnoticed.
Hornish is a guy that they could have kept too. He is obviously loyal, but when you are a race car driver with a short career loyalty can only go so far. He stuck with Panther Racing until it was obvious that they were no longer able to get him competitive equipment and he made the move to Penske. Now, that it is obvious that the IRL is never going to promote him the way they do Patrick, and that his IRL paychecks are never going to be as big as the ones he can get from NASCAR the decision is a no-brainer. Especially, considering he gets to stay with Penske.
If the IRL had done a better job, and it had been, say, Hornish instead of Patrick drinking Budweiser with Dale Jr. in the Jay-Z video then the decision would have been a lot harder. After all, in INDY Hornish is a three-time champion, in NASCAR he will be just another face in the crowd.
There is also no guarantee of being successful. Although Penske is without question a top flight organization, they also run Dodges which haven't been all that successful in NASCAR the past few years. His teammates, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman, are both talented drivers who have underachieved recently, partly due to inferior equipment.
There is also the learning curve that ever open-wheeled driver goes through when switching to cars with fenders. Look no further than Juan Pablo Montoya who despite a road-course win has struggled for the most part the season in NASCAR. Hornish himself has struggled in most of the Busch Series events that he has run so far, but has shown promise in a couple of ARCA races. You also have to give him the benefit of the doubt being that he is racing IRL full time and has never really driven these cars before.
Ultimately, I see Hornish being successful in NASCAR. First and foremost, unlike most open wheel stars who have made the big switch Hornish is at his best on ovals. Guys like Robby Gordon and Montoya are more natural road racers. The second is his age. Hornish will be 28 when the Nextel Cup season opens up next year, ironically, the same age that Tony Stewart was when he made his Nextel Cup debut.
Due to his championships in both types of cars there have been some greatest driver ever whispers about Stewart in racing circles. While greatest driver ever is likely quite a stretch, if he continues to build his resume then he certainly will rank up there on the list.
If you take into consideration that Hornish has accomplished far more in the IRL than Stewart ever did, then you have to wonder what it would mean if he can match Stewarts success in NASCAR.
And one day when Hornish is holding the Nextel, I mean Sprint Cup (or whatever they call it then) above his head. I just hope that Tony George is watching, and I hope he realizes that one of the greatest drivers of all-time got away. And he has no one to blame but himself.
As for you IRL fans, my only advice is to root for Patrick and Andretti and pray that the cart (not CART) is hooked to the right horse for once. I know I will.
