IRL’s biggest star an also-ran in stock cars

IRL star Sam Hornish Jr. was just an also-ran in IROC and now in NASCAR 2nd-rate Busch series. In his first Busch Series race with the Penske Racing team, the 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner started strong in Saturday's season opener. But a lack of familiarity with his No. 12 Dodge led to some handling problems and a couple scrapes with the wall, as the IndyCar champion finished 31st in Orbitz 300, his third-ever Busch race.

"It's still a learning process here for us," Hornish said. "Not really knowing what we needed out of the car and obviously some of my inexperience not knowing how much under-steering the car has. Just the setup of the car is still something I'm trying to learn."

"We got lucky getting through a couple of crashes without hitting anything and then got one of our own," Hornish said. "We're going into the corner, and the car just doesn't want to turn.

"It's kind of baby steps trying to progress forward. If we had two Busch cars we could run in here every weekend, I think it would be easier for me to learn."