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Samuel Jon Hornish, Jr.
Nationality	American
Date of Birth	June 02, 1979 (1979-06-02) (age 28)
Place of Birth	Bryan, Ohio
2007 IRL IndyCar Series
Debut season	2000
Current team	Team Penske
Car No.	6
Former teams	PDM Racing Panther Racing
Starts	108
Wins	19
Poles	12
Best finish	Champion in 2001, 2002 and 2006

Practicing for the 2007 Indianapolis 500

Hornish competing in a 2006 International Race of Champions race at Texas Motor Speedway

Hornish spinning in a Busch Series car in 2007

Samuel Jon Hornish, Jr. (born July 2, 1979 in Bryan, Ohio) is an American race car driver. The 2006 Indianapolis 500 champion and a three-time Indy Racing League champion, for 2008 he moves to stock cars for Penske Racing. He formerly competed in the invitation-only International Race of Champions. He also has the most IRL wins of any driver with 19.

Hornish began racing at the age of 11 in go-karts. After competing in junior leagues for various seasons, he joined the World Karting Association in 1993, winning seven races and posting twenty-nine top-five finishes. The following season, he won several championships in WKA, including the U.S. and Canadian Grand Championships, as well as the U.S. Junior Class Grand Championship. In 1995, he repeated his U.S. Grand National title and won nine races. He would move up to the United States F2000 Series, driving six races for his family-owned team, and had one top-ten finish at Watkins Glen International. He joined Bordin Racing in 1997 and had two eleventh-place finishes, before signing with Primus Racing. He had a second-place run at Pikes Peak International Raceway and finished seventh in points.

In 1999, Hornish moved to the Toyota Atlantic Series to drive for Shank Racing. He won Rookie of the Year after getting his victory at Chicago Motor Speedway. He also drove the 24 Hours of Daytona for Intersport Racing.

He first raced in the IRL in 2000 with the PDM Racing team, with a best finish of third. However, he switched to Panther Racing for the next season and improved enough to take the title from reigning champion Buddy Lazier. In 2002 the Penske team switched from Champ Car, and Sam was able to beat their top driver Hélio Castroneves to his second title. Along the way, Hornish beat Al Unser, Jr. by .0024 of a second in the Delphi Indy 300 in Chicago, possibly the closest race in auto history until the 2007 Indy Pro Season when Logan Gomez beat teammate and champion Alex Lloyd at the same racetrack by only 0.0005 sec, or 1.65 inches.

In 2003, most of the established top US open-wheel teams were now racing in the series, with Honda and Toyota providing engines superior to the established Chevrolet unit Panther used. As a result, Cosworth was called in to supply a replacement engine informally dubbed the "Chevworth", with which Sam was a winner again, finishing 5th in the 2003 standings. For 2004 he moved to Penske, winning the season-opener but finding that Honda engines, and not Penske's Toyotas, were now the engine of choice. 2005 was an improvement, as he finished third to Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan in the standings and the top placement of any driver not driving for Andretti Green Racing.

On May 28, 2006, after starting on the pole for the 2006 Indianapolis 500, Hornish became the first driver to ever overtake for the lead on the race's final lap, ultimately winning the race in the last 300 yards by a 0.0635-second margin over rookie Marco Andretti. Also in that year, he won the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's Scott Brayton Award, awarded annually to the driver best exemplifying a spirit of tenacity as well as friendliness amongst the race's participants. Hornish went on to win the 2006 IRL championship in the final race of the season by a tiebreaker over defending champ Dan Wheldon. He became the first 3-time champion in IRL history. In 2007, he only won one race at Texas, and finished fifth in points.

Hornish practicing the #06 car at the 2007 Ford Championship Weekend at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

On October 28, 2006, Hornish announced that he will attempt to run the final two 2006 NASCAR Busch Series races for Penske Racing, as well as select events in 2007. In his first two Busch starts, Hornish wrecked his #39 Mobil 1 Dodge both times, and did not finish better than 36th. In 2007, his car was switched to the #12, and he competed in seven Busch races, his best finish being a 15th at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Beginning in fall 2007, he started attempting Nextel Cup races in the #06 for Penske, and made only two races (at Phoneix International Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway). He will drive the #77 full-time for Penske in Sprint Cup in 2008 with Mobil 1 sponsorship.

Hornish is a 1998 graduate of Archbold High School in Archbold, Ohio, and now resides in Napoleon.

(Races in Bold indicate pole position)

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