Sam Hornish Jr.
No 12 Penske Truck Rental Dodge
Nicorette 300 and Atlanta Motor Speedway Advance
NBS Notes:
Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the No. 12 Penske Truck Rental Dodge Charger, will attempt to qualify for his third NASCAR Busch Series event this season -- his fifth in the series -- at the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday.
The last time Hornish saw Atlanta was in 2006 when he finished ninth in an IROC series event.
Although Atlanta is one of NASCAR’s fastest tracks, Hornish is used to running a bit faster on it. In the track's 2001 IRL event, Hornish posted a qualifying speed of 219.596 mph and finished fourth in the race.
Crew chief of the No. 12 Penske Truck Rental Dodge Charger Matt Gimbel will take chassis PBC-008 to this weekend’s Nicorette 300. Kurt Busch drove this car to a second-place finish at Charlotte in May 2006, then came back the next weekend at Dover with a third. Busch also ran this car at Chicago and Michigan last year.
The backup car for Atlanta, PBC-012, has never seen the green flag.
Quotes:
Hornish on Atlanta Motor Speedway: "As the fastest track we run at and having raced there twice, once in IROC and once in IndyCar, I feel comfortable about Atlanta. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car this weekend to see how we do, especially after as good a run as we had in California. Obviously, we didn’t have the finish that we wanted, but we learned a lot there. I’m continuing to learn the little things. How the car handles and feels and deciding on what you want to do in the pits, whether to take four tires or two.”
“I watched the Mexico and Vegas races on TV. I wanted to be there driving in them, not watching them.”
