Hornish

FORT WORTH, Texas -- By becoming the first driver to win the Indy Racing League championship twice, Sam Hornish Jr. solidified his stature as one of the best open-wheel drivers in America.

He is young, fast and fearless and has the potential to become one of the all-time greats in Indy car racing.

Earlier this season, however, it appeared Hornish might follow Tony Stewart, the 1997 IRL champion who left the series after the 1998 season to become a full-time NASCAR Winston Cup driver. He was in demand by Dale Earnhardt Inc. president Ty Norris, who wanted to add the 23-year-old from Defiance, Ohio, to the NASCAR operation that also includes Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2001 Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip and Steve Park.

Hornish admitted he is interested in adding some Winston Cup and Busch series races to his schedule next season. He is under contract to the Pennzoil/Panther Racing IRL team through the 2003 season and is negotiating an extension that would keep him with the team through 2005.

After winning Sunday's Chevy 500 by just .0096 seconds over Helio Castroneves to clinch his second-straight IRL title, Hornish said his heart has told him he may remain in the IRL for the rest of his career.

This came after a conversation he had with Earnhardt Jr. at Chicagoland Speedway in mid-July before Hornish competed in an International Race of Champions event.

"I saw Dale, talked to him for a little bit," Hornish recalled. "I was asking him what it was like to be a Winston Cup driver, what the differences are, what he thinks the differences are in his life other than being gone more on the road, stuff like that.

"He said, 'It's not about the days that you're gone or the days that you're home, it's about what you love to do. You've got to decide in your heart whether you want to be a stock-car driver for the rest of your life or whether you want to be an Indy car driver for the rest of your life.'"

Earnhardt's words had an impact on Hornish, who said the choice -- at least in his heart -- is clear.

"That's not a too tough decision for me to make," Hornish said. "When it comes down to it, if I could do whatever it took to win one of two races, whether it be the Indianapolis 500 or the Daytona 500, I'd definitely choose the Indianapolis 500.

"It made me focus a lot more on the IRL. At that time, I also decided that I had to focus on the IRL championship, not think about anything else. There are so many things that you could waste your time thinking about, might happen, might not happen. I just had to get this out of the way first."

	Hornish, in the green car, finished second to Tony Stewart in the Daytona IROC race this season.

Hornish admits he would one day like to win a race at Daytona International Speedway, but that may only happen in an IROC car, not in the Daytona 500.

"I'm really excited about the fact that I get to go back and I get to do the IROC series again next year," Hornish said. "That's a way for me to learn, to get the thrill of running at Daytona. Maybe I'll never run in Winston Cup there but always maybe have the opportunity to win an IROC race there, which would be as sweet."

Nothing was sweeter than Hornish's performance in Sunday's IRL season finale, when he won the second-closest race in IRL history just a week after winning the closest race in IRL history at Chicagoland Speedway.

Hornish defeated Al Unser Jr. last week by .0024 seconds. On Sunday, he clinched his second straight IRL title, becoming the first driver to win the championship twice.

"It's a wonderful feeling," Hornish admitted. "It's something that I didn't even know up until the last 15 laps, if I was going to be able to do. All year long, things went good, things went bad, we all kept our heads up, focused on the goal.

"As far as what it means to me personally, I don't know if I'll ever be able to say that. I say what I mean a lot, but I don't always let all the emotion out. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to be the first person to do that. I feel better about it that Panther Racing is, I think, the first team to win two IRL championships, two back-to-back ones at least. To have the most wins, those guys really worked hard for me."

Hornish has a close relationship with his team and trusts his crew members.

"They never once let me down, which has given me all the faith in the world," he said. "As long as their heads are up, mine is up, we're going to do good things.

"We had three really good races at the beginning of the year. I keep going back to this, but if the driver hadn't screwed up in three races, we would have had a little better of a season. We wouldn't have been going right down to the end here and having to win, having to win two races in a row to take the championship. The Pennzoil Panther team didn't let me down once this year."

Members of Hornish's team also have the utmost respect for their driver. They realize he has all the makings of becoming one of the best drivers in recent Indy car history, and they want to be along for the ride.

"Sam, he's incredible," chief mechanic Kevin Blanch said. "He drives his heart out every race. Like he says, he's a perfect fit with the team. He doesn't want to lose, we don't want to lose. I'm sure a lot of times when we finish second place, people look at us and say, 'You should be smiling.'

"That's not what we go out there to do. We know that's not what he goes out there to do."

Blanch helped rally his team after Hornish's primary car caught fire during Friday afternoon's first practice session as the result of a fuel line problem. The team was able to prepare the backup car and provide Hornish with a championship ride.

"We fixed the car twice," Blanch said. "We were hoping that wasn't going to be what made the difference in the championship. He went and won the race today. Fixing the car didn't make the difference, it just gave us a little bit of an edge going into the end.

	“	As far as what (winning two IRL titles) means to me personally, I don't know if I'll ever be able to say that. I say what I mean a lot, but I don't always let all the emotion out. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to be the first person to do that. ”
		— Hornish

"I started with team owner John Barnes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the garage with a kerosene heater five years ago. I complained about the kerosene heater. We got a nice shop. We complained about no air conditioning. Now we've won two championships. I don't think there's much more we can complain about."

Barnes has put together the best team in the IRL. Sunday's victory gave Pennzoil Panther Racing a record 11 IRL wins, with Hornish tying Buddy Lazier with his eighth career victory. Scott Goodyear won the other three races for Panther Racing.

With the championship decided, fellow team owner Roger Penske came over to congratulate Barnes after Hornish defeated Castroneves, who drives for Marlboro Team Penske.

"He said, 'Well, big man, you did it,'" Barnes said. "The whole Penske organization is a class act -- Rick Mears, Tim Cindric. What a great team to race against."

Barnes and Hornish also could take satisfaction in beating Team Penske, despite an overwhelming budget disadvantage. Penske's budget for a two-car IRL team this year was $22 million. Pennzoil Panther Racing's budget for its one-car entry was $3.5 million.

"As I told you all year long, we had a pretty big deficit financially facing us, the 3 (Castroneves) and 6 car (Gil de Ferran) had," Barnes said. "We have great people. It's a people's sport. We made up for the deficit of funding with (engineer) Andy Brown and all the guys that worked there at the shop every day.

"Sam is a tremendous talent. It's been a blessing all year long. We've been blessed tremendously all year. That's just the way it is here. The rules are made to where cubic dollars can't fix all the problems. They made a helluva run at us and our guys just stood up and took it."

Now that Hornish has won a second straight title, his motivation turns to capturing the Indianapolis 500 for the first time. He has entered the last two Indy 500s as one of the top contenders, only to make a costly mistake.

"The Indianapolis 500 has been my driving motivation since I started," Hornish said. "I don't know why it is, but every year before that race, driver introductions, I get choked up, teary eyed. I don't really like the fact that I do that because I know it's putting me beside myself. It's not really the best way to do it because that race means more to me than any other race.

"It's been my worst three finishes for the last three years. There's something wrong and we're going to have to fix that. That is the driving motivation. There is a lot to be said for winning championships, too. That's still going to be the primary focus."

Spoken like a true champion.