IRL News - Hornish Is Champion!
09/09/2006
Sam Hornish Jr. did the double this weekend, adding the IRL IndyCar Series Championship title to his Indy 500 win earlier this year. It is the American’s third title, but the first for team owner Roger Penske in the IRL series.
Hornish finished third behind a frantic Firestone wheel-banging duel of Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon – who were both also in contention for the title -- to score a million-dollar prize and his third championship in six years.
“It‘s been an unbelievable year for us,” Hornish said. “We‘ve had some ups and downs, but this was the greatest. Things worked out so well. I just tried to go out there and be as smart as possible. The two Ganassi cars were hitting each other. I didn‘t want to stick my nose in there.”
By winning the race over teammate Dixon, Wheldon tied with Hornish in the final points standings. However, Hornish claimed the championship on the strength of the tiebreaker - number of race wins. Hornish won four races this season, Wheldon two.
“It was aggressive,” Wheldon said of his run to victory in Sunday’s season finale. “It was about making a point for next year.”
Hornish’s Marlboro Team Penske teammate, Helio Castroneves, finished fourth in the race and third in the standings after coming into the event with a one-point lead over Hornish. He fell behind early on after being penalized for speeding on pit road on the 15th lap.
But while Castroneves caught back up, Hornish was in the driving seat and restrained from racing the dueling Ganassi duo ahead. “I was trying to figure out how to not lose my momentum because I didn‘t want to fall further back,” Hornish said.
“I did have to go around Scott when they touched (with four laps remaining). They started it on about the 18th lap, when Wheldon got into it with A.J. Foyt IV. I thought, ’This is going to be a real long race if they keep this up.’
“Winning Indy this year was the highlight of my career, but it also helped us get back into the hunt for the championship,” Hornish said. “We just continued on from there. We had some problems along the way, but we kept our composure. Things worked out well.”
Team owner Roger Penske held his nerves on pit wall in the closing stages.
“I didn’t want him to get too racy at the end,” he said. “The win wasn’t what we came to do. We came here for the championship.”
“I’m still three Indy 500s behind Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and Big Al,” Hornish added. “I look forward to next season. I feel like once you’ve accomplished that next thing, you can distance yourself. You just keep trying to move forward and stockpile as many records as you can. There’s always something around the corner. The next thing on the list is to try to win a road-course race.”
As far as his boss is concerned, Hornish doesn’t need to prove any more than he has so far.
“There‘s no question that Sam had proven in ‘03 when he came to us that he was a great driver,” Penske said. “To me, patience is the virtue that Sam has been developing. He’s a smart race-car driver.”