2015 Driver Spotlight Preview: Sam Hornish Jr

Sam Hornish Jr 2014 Season Preview

By Richard Tix

Sam Hornish Jr hasn't run a full season in the Sprint Cup since 2010 (ran 20 races in 2012) but will be back in a full time ride with Richard Petty Motorsports in 2015. Hornish didn't run full time in any NASCAR series in 2014, actually. 

Sam ended up running just 8 of 33 races for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Nationwide Series in 2014 and ended up with 1 win, 4 top 5's, 4 top 10's, and 2 poles. His only win came at Iowa Speedway, which happened to be the only other race weekend I made in 2014 (other than MIS in August). He dominated that whole race and it may have been part of the reason RPM brought him back to the Cup level.

Another part of his comeback story maybe due to his 4th and 2nd place points finishes in the Nationwide Series in 2012 and 2013. Those two season's were the last ones he ran full time on the NASCAR level. 

During Hornish's Cup career he proved he was good enough to run with the big boys but never showed enough to warrant the excitement of being a top driver. In his 131 race career he has 0 wins, 3 top 5's, and 9 top 10's with an average finish of 25.5. 

Bold Predictions/2015 Season Expectations:

• It's hard to put a finger on how Sam Hornish Jr's season will go. When he left he was with Penkse Racing (now Team Penkse. Also, ran one race in 2014 with JGR filling in for Denny Hamlin) in a third car for that team. Since then they (Team Penske) have gone back to two cars and been successful. So, he was a third wheel, but this season he is joining RPM and will be one of two drivers. RPM got a win out of Aric Almirola in 2014 and maybe they will ride that streak into 2015, which would help Hornish. I personally think he will end up in the range of 2-3 top 5's and 5-8 top 10's, while finishing 21st-25th in points. He does have all the opportunity to take advantage of another shot at the Cup level.

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