Sam Hornish, Jr. in Defiance, Ohio, is an American auto racing driver. Hornish first competed in the World Karting Association. Hornish begin to compete the U.S. F2000 National Championship in 1996 and the Atlantic Championship in 1999. Hornish would begin to compete in the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2000 for PDM Racing. Hornish would begin to compete for Panther Racing the following season and would win 11 races during the next three seasons with Panther and would win the 2001 and 2002. In 2004 Hornish would begin to drive for Team Penske and would win 8 more races, including the Indianapolis 500 in 2006, would win the 2006 series championship. At the time of his departure from the series after the 2007 season Hornish had the record for the most wins in the series in the series with 19 wins (Scott Dixon broke the record in 2009. Hornish was the final American to win the series championship until Ryan Hunter-Reay won in 2012 and the final American to win the Indianapolis 500 until Hunter-Reay won in 2014. Hornish was also the final driver to win the series championship for Team Penske until Will Power won in 2014. Hornish began to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Team Penske in 2006 and would begin to compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2007 and begin to compete in the series full-time in 2008. Hornish would initially struggle in the series, getting only 8 top tens and finishing no better than 28th in points (2009). Hornish would return to the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2011 for a part-time season and would win the WYPALL* 200 Powered by Kimberly-Clark Professional at Phoenix International Raceway. Hornish begin to compete full-time in the series in 2012 and would finish 4th in points. During the season Hornish replaced A.J. Allmendinger, who had been suspended by NASCAR for failing a random drug test, and would get one top five finish. In 2013 Hornish won one race and would get 16 top five finish and 24 top ten finishes to finish 2nd in points, three points behind champion Austin Dillon. Hornish would only compete in a part-time season for Joe Gibbs Racing in eight races. Hornish would win one race and get four top five finishes. In 2015 Hornish will drive for Richard Petty Motorsports in the #9 Twisted Tea Ford Fusion. Hornish has appeared on several television series, including WindTunnel with Dave Despain, Live! with Regis and Kelly, Late Show with David Letterman and NASCAR Trackside. Starting in 2007 Hornish became the narrator of the British animated television series Roary the Racing Car. Hornish was also the host of the auto racing news program SPEED Center on episodes that aired on Sundays from early 2012 through the show's final episode that aired on August 11, 2013. During this time Hornish was a reporter for the show's network, SpeedTV, and would appear on episodes of NASCAR Race Hub and Speed Center episodes that he was not a host of until the network became Fox Sports 1 on August 17, 2013.
