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Race report

Hornish top finisher for Dodge Saturday in Loudon

Sam Hornish Jr.

Sam Hornish Jr.

Action Sports Photography

Sam Hornish Jr.
Sam Hornish Jr.

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger R/T) Finished Second “It’s an okay point’s day. We gained on a couple guys but we gained on the guys that we really need to right now. Just real happy with what everybody did on the Alliance Truck Parts Dodge. We were way too free for about the first three-quarters of the race and finally got it dialed in a little bit closer but just didn’t have enough there at the end. We got it to the point where it was a little bit tight in the center, just wouldn’t turn for me the way I needed it to. That last restart, I just got loose coming off of Turn 2 and lost two spots. In order for me to get around those guys, that kept me from even getting to Austin (Dillon). I don’t even know if I’d have been able to do anything once I got there.”

HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE AFTERNOON? “It got better as we went along. I started off the day and the Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger was really, really free but Chad Walter (crew chief) and the guys on the box made good calls and got our car tightened up a little bit. We didn’t really get it tight until like the last run, so we were able to kind of move forward from about lap 100 on. I was real happy with that; real thankful things went as well as they did. We gained a couple of points. I’m looking forward to going up to Loudon tomorrow and running the Cup car up there and just real thankful for Nationwide Insurance for having this series and all of our sponsors. I’m pretty pumped up about it.”

HORNISH IN MEDIA CENTER: “We got the car better and better throughout the day. Really, probably around lap 120, we started actually getting the car where I could turn the wheel and not worry about the back end sliding out from underneath me. The guys made good adjustments on our Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger today. I’m really happy getting up there and finishing second. I thought on that restart we were going to have something for Austin (Dillon) but the car was loose off Turn Two and a couple of guys got around me. I had to work getting back around those guys and didn’t have enough to reel in Austin. It probably would have been pretty tough to get around him; would have needed some help with traffic. All in all, I’m really proud of what the guys did today and the car they gave me.”

THE WAY THE RACE UNFOLDED, DID YOU THINK A FEW MORE LAPS YOU MIGHT HAVE A CHANCE TO GET THE WIN? “From the beginning of the race, I thought Austin was pretty strong and if he took care of his car, he would be pretty good. When Ricky (Stenhouse, Jr.) had his problems, I thought well, I still have to get around the other two guys to make it worthwhile. We finally got our car handling right and I could see Elliott (Sadler) up ahead of me and I was catching him. I didn’t know if I had time to get to him and didn’t know where the 3 car (Dillon) was. We had a bad pit stop the last one and it put us a little farther behind than what I thought we were going to be. I thought we had a good car, it just took us a while to get there.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES TOMORROW IN THE 22 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE AND WAS IT WORTH STAYING HERE AT KENTUCKY AND LETTING DAVE BLANEY PRACTICE AND QUALIFY THE CAR? “I definitely think it was worth it to stay here. The last time that I did this where we had non-companion weekends, I finished second at Montreal and then started from the back at Michigan and ended up 12th that day. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do at least that good tomorrow. Obviously, it’s going to be tough to pass up at Loudon but maybe we’ll do a little bit with pit strategy and can move up.”

Ryan Blaney (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) Finished 10th “We struggled all race. We didn’t have initial speed like we needed to stay with those guys. We struggled badly from the start on tires. We were decent by the end of the run but couldn’t get going initially. We were way too loose all race, couldn’t do anything around other cars. We’ll keep working on it and get better.”

Jeremy Bullins (Crew Chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) “I think we got exactly what we were looking for today. We were looking to get Blaney some laps here and he did a good job for us, got us up in the top 10. That’s the third time, his third top 10 with us. We’re working with him. We’re getting better and better every week with him. It’s not going to be long before we’re running up in the top five every week.”

Source: SRT Motorsports

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