Sam Hornish Jr.
No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway Advance
NBS Notes:
Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, will make his fourth NASCAR Busch Series start this season -- his sixth in the series – at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday.
Hornish has a 2007 Busch Series starting average of 16 and a finishing average of 27.3.
Having competed in only three of the six races held this year in NASCAR's Busch Series, Hornish sits sixth in the Rookie-of-the-Year standings.
Although Hornish has never raced a stock car at Nashville, he tested at the 1.33-mile superspeedway two days after his career-best Busch Series finish at Atlanta.
In his six IndyCar Series starts at Nashville, Hornish recorded a career-best second-place start in his inaugural race at the track in 2001 and went on to finish sixth. Hornish’s career- best second-place finish at Nashville came in 2004 and 2005.
Matt Gimbel, crew chief of the No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, will take chassis PBC-003 to this weekend’s Pepsi 300. Hornish drove this car at California but due to a late race incident with a lapped car, he did not finish the event. In 2006, Ryan Newman also failed to finish in this car at Atlanta when it suffered a cut right-front tire and slammed the wall. However, Newman took this car to victory lane three times in 2005 at Homestead, Dover and Michigan and it finished third at Chicago.
The backup car for Nashville, PBC-012, has never been raced.
Quotes:
Hornish on Nashville Superspeedway: “Nashville is a track that I know and like. I’ve never raced a stock car there, but I have finished second and third twice in an IndyCar. It’s actually one of the few ovals on the IndyCar schedule that I haven’t won at. Maybe it just takes a different kind of race car to make it to victory lane.
"I’m enjoying the learning experience so far. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but we get closer and better each time we’re on the track. I’m looking forward to getting back into the No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge to see what we can do.”
