Sam Hornish Jr.’s new life as racing fan

As if he had nitrous oxide, Sam Hornish Jr. blows past Marco Andretti in the last 100 yards to win the 2006 Indy 500

Last month Sam Hornish Jr. was kicking back at his home in Mooresville, N.C., watching that weekend’s IndyCar race on the streets of Long Beach, when the broadcast cut to a commercial. Amid the usual bevy of adverts hawking car stuff and other things was a Firestone tires spot hyping this year's Indianapolis 500–which will run, for the 100th time, on May 29.

The quick ad featured an even quicker flashback–a clip of a belaureled Hornish quaffing a jug of milk in a toast to his breathtaking triumph in the 90th running, back in 2006. Naturally, this got the attention of his young daughters, Eliza and Addison, who were quickly moved to ask what this much younger version of their 36-year-old father was doing on TV.

To explain, Hornish gathered the girls around a computer and called up a YouTube video of the race’s final four laps, which began with a restart. Hornish, in fourth position, got by Scott Dixon easily but appeared as though he’d be left behind by the first and second position cars of Michael and Marco Andretti–a father and son team hell-bent on ending what was then their family’s 37-year winless streak at the Brickyard.

That mission seemed accomplished when the then-19-year-old Marco rocketed past his old man a lap later, on the outside line. Actually, the moment was so charged with excitement that Rusty Wallace, the ex NASCAR Cup champion turned ABC TV race analyst, forgot where he was for a second there. “I really think Marco can do this!" Wallace shouted, as an estimated 250,000 Speedway spectators rose to their feet and thickened the humid Hoosier air with cheers. “I really think he’s got it! This kid, I believe, is gonna win this race, the most exciting Daytona 5–I’m sorry, Indy 500, ever!"

And though it had been nearly a decade since the guy watching this replay was on the other side of the computer screen, that didn’t make Hornish any less immune to the anxiety that had been his constant seatmate at the track. His hands glazed with sweat. His stomach churned. His mind raced. He wondered, Am I gonna make it? Am I gonna get the job done?

Hornish Jr. pumps his fist in air on cool-down lap

They were fair questions, ones many other observers were doubtless asking themselves at the time a few turns later, as Hornish deked his way past Michael Andretti and poked his nose into a tiny window inside Marco’s left rear wheel. When Marco immediately slammed that window shut, causing Hornish to fall far behind, it felt like that bold parry would go down as the move that broke the Andretti curse.

But then on the final turn, Hornish closed on Marco again, zoomed past him on the inside straightaway line and beat him to the finish by 0.0635 seconds. That time would stand as the second closest difference in 500 history until Ryan Hunter-Reay denied Hélio Castroneves’s bid for a fourth Borg-Warner trophy in 2014, by a whopping 0.0600 seconds.

Every 500 winner gets a scale replica to take home. Even the most modest drivers find an excuse to display theirs. Hornish? He keeps his in its box, unpacking it only upon request. “Very seldom does someone ask to see it," he says. But when they do, “I like to be able to get it out and present it. You get the case out, you open everything up–it’s like you’re building up to something. Plus, it keeps it from getting tarnished."

No amount of dust in the world could tarnish Hornish’s 500 victory, the product of his hard driving and a brave fuel strategy call by team owner Roger Penske. Along with being the closest win since Al Unser Jr. pipped Scott Goodyear to the line in 1992 (by 0.043 seconds) and the 14th of Team Penske’s record run of 16 triumphs at the Speedway, it also marked the first time in seven attempts that Hornish had finished the race. That was a remarkable run of frustration for a driver who seemed to have little trouble winning every place else on the IndyCar circuit.

During his eight years as an open-wheel racer, from 2000 until he jumped to NASCAR in ’08, Hornish was a mighty goliath, reaching the podium a staggering 47 times–19 on the very top step–while claiming three series championships. “That was just about a perfect fit for me, as far as car and driver and racing style," Hornish says. “Like a glove."

You’d think a guy that good would be trying to line up on the starting grid for the centennial edition of the Indy 500. But Hornish isn’t about that life anymore. He hung up his helmet at the end of last season, after an eight-year run in stock cars that fell well short of his open-wheel standard. Frankly, that’s a shame. More from…..Andrew Laurence/SI.com