Hornish provides Panther quick IRL title

Stephen Hawkins

Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001 | 3:38 a.m.

FORT WORTH, Texas - When Panther Racing chose Sam Hornish Jr. over several more experienced drivers, team owners figured they had a good, young competitor to build their program around.

It was a quick construction project.

Hornish won his first two rides with Panther, and clinched the IRL's Northern Light Cup and a $1 million bonus before the final race. Then he capped his championship last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway by winning the closest race in the circuit's six seasons.

The 22-year-old Hornish is the youngest driver to win a major league open-wheel championship in modern American motorsports.

"It's just been one of those years," said team manager John Barnes, one of Panther Racing's six co-owners. "To take Sam in only his second year - actually year and a half - of IRL racing, it's just been tremendous to watch him."

Hornish completed all but seven of the 2,650 possible laps in the 13 races, won nearly $1.5 million and led 764 laps - 326 more than runner-up Buddy Lazier. Hornish had 11 top-five finishes. He wound up 14th in the Indianapolis 500 - his only finish out of the top 10.

But when he was chosen to replace Scott Goodyear - and also follow multiple Indy 500 winners Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford and Al Unser Sr. in the cockpit of a yellow Pennzoil-sponsored car - Hornish was a rookie with just two top-10 finishes.

Now the kid from Defiance, Ohio, is a legitimate IRL star, who unlike some in the past has no plans to race elsewhere.

"I'm having so much fun here, and I've got so many other goals that I need to accomplish that are involved with the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500," Hornish said. "I don't see myself going anywhere for a long time."

After Tony Stewart was the 1997 IRL champion, he made the jump to NASCAR - racing one year in the Busch series before advancing to Winston Cup.

Kenny Brack won the IRL title in 1998 and was the league's runner-up to Greg Ray the following year before going to CART.

"People may put too much of a negative that some of our former champions are not with us," said Brian Barnhart, the IRL's vice president of operations. "In the process of growing, the success of Tony Stewart in NASCAR and the success of Kenny Brack in CART has helped legitimize what the Indy Racing League is about."

"But I won't disagree that it's certainly nice to have Sam Hornish, as young as he is, to be our champion and know that he wants to continue his career in the IRL for many years to come."

Hornish was the first IRL driver to claim the season title before the final race, but he won the season-ending Chevy 500 with another incredible finish at Texas Motor Speedway.

Even though he led 114 of 200 laps, Hornish had to find an extra boost at the very end to beat Scott Sharp and Robbie Buhl in the closest 1-2-3 finish in IRL history. He beat Sharp to the line by a few feet. Buhl finished a half-car-length behind.

Lazier, the IRL's career leader with eight victories, made a strong run at becoming the IRL's first two-time champion.

The 2000 IRL champ set a single-season record with four victories, all coming in a five-race stretch. But Lazier was out of the top 10 the last three races and finished 105 points behind Hornish's 503.

There were other headlines during the 2001 IRL season:

- Brazilian Felipe Giaffone was the rookie of the year and finished sixth in points.

- The IRL expanded its schedule for the second year in a row, up from 13 races to 15 next season.

- The Oldsmobile Aurora engine, the winning car for 49 of the last 51 IRL events, was used for the last time. Chevrolet replaces the Oldsmobile nameplate on the GM engines.

- Ray parted ways with Team Menard after the Kentucky race in August, leaving the team with which he won his IRL title in their first season together. He was replaced by Jacques Lazier, who won in just his start race with Menard.