NASCAR - Penske Racing Race Report (April 9)

NASCAR BUSCH SERIES

LEBANON, Tenn. (April 7, 2007) - Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, had hoped to finish better than 25th in Saturday's Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway, but an early race brush with the wall turned a cold day at the track a little colder.

"Obviously, it wasn't the kind of day that we wanted," Hornish said. "A lot of things, a flat right-front tire, pit lane speeding penalties and a mid-race incident contributed to the day we had. The accident we were involved in made the car just really hard to drive. We tried to work on it to make it better, but we never got the car back to where we needed it to be."

Hornish, who started 13th, brushed the 1.33-mile track's wall coming off turn four on the eighth lap. A short time later, his Dodge suffered a cut right-rear tire and forced him to make a green-flag stop on lap 28. However, Hornish was caught speeding on pit road, his first of two such penalties in the 225-lap race. NASCAR officials assessed him a pass-through penalty that he served three laps later, which relegated him to 36th, three laps down to the leader.

Despite early misfortunes, Hornish and the No. 12 Mobil 1 team's cold luck looked like it was just about to warm-up.

During the first round of green-flag stops -- laps 61-69 -- the Mobil 1 team elected to stay out, allowing Hornish to regain a lap. Then, an incident involving Johnny Sauter and Dave Blaney, brought out a much needed caution for Hornish to make his second pit stop on lap 89 without loosing the lap he had regained.

On lap 104, Boris Said spun, bringing out the event's third yellow flag. Hornish pitted during this caution period and advanced to 23rd.

Trying to pass Sauter on the inside of turns one and two on lap 126, Hornish's car got loose and collided with Sauter's. Consequently, the No. 12 suffered right-front damage, forcing Hornish to pit twice for repairs. A costly stop for Hornish, as he was caug ht speeding on pit lane again.

On lap 140, during the fifth of six caution periods, Hornish told his crew that something was rubbing in the corners. Crew chief Matt Gimbel called him in to inspect the situation. The crew removed the car's side skirt that was rubbing on the exhaust and Hornish returned to the field in 22nd.

With 44 laps remaining, Hornish pitted for the last time under the final caution. "The more laps, the more experience. So hopefully, we'll be able to capitalize on it. We'll just have to brush ourselves off and look forward to Richmond," Hornish said optimistically.

After making a stop for the IndyCar races in Motegi, Japan, and Kansas, Hornish's next Busch Series appearance in the No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge will be at the beginning of May at Richmond International Raceway for the Circuit City 250 on Friday, May 4, at 8 p.m. EDT.