For the second week in a row the NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to a road course where anything can happen. This weekend, however, there’s something a bit different.
On Saturday, the series makes its inaugural visit to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). There is probably no driver more excited to visit the 2.4-mile track than Sam Hornish Jr., of Defiance, Ohio.
Not only is the track 2-1/2 hours east of his hometown, it’s a track at which he’s previously competed. In 2007, he finished 14th in an IndyCar Series event at Mid-Ohio. The following season he turned his focus to NASCAR.
Hornish currently is second in the standings, three points behind Austin Dillon. A win in front of his family and friends would mean more to the 34-year-old driver than a win at most any other track and would likely return him to the top of the standings, a position he held after each of the season’s first seven races and most recently after last month’s race at Chicagoland.
“We want to win, especially when we have a car that’s capable of winning,” Hornish said. “Looking ahead to this weekend, we know what we have to do.”
In seven road-course races in the series, Hornish has five consecutive top-five finishes and two poles, including a fifth-place showing at Road America in June and a runner-up performance last weekend at The Glen. This season, Hornish has one victory and five second-place showings in which he was the highest finishing points-eligible series regular.
“It will be something special to win this race in my home state,” he said.
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