Substitute Teacher Hornish Wins as Substitute Driver

Substituting is becoming a familiar role for Sam Hornish, Jr.

Since his Sprint Cup career seemingly ended last year, he’s become a substitute teacher in his home state of Ohio. Today at Iowa Speedway, he stepped into the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to substitute for the injured Matt Tifft, and took home his fourth career NASCAR XFINITY Series win. Pretty great switch between grading custom essay for kids and winning the race!

Hornish led 183 of 250 laps at Iowa before making his way to victory lane. The driver had to fend off Ty Dillon and Brad Keselowski; two winless drivers this year, hungry for a victory.

Hornish’s plans for Father’s Day last weekend didn’t involve a trip to Newton, Iowa. The former Indianapolis 500 champion got the call on Monday to replace Tifft, who was out with a back injury, in the No. 18 Toyota.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” an emotional Hornish said in victory lane. “Just got to thank Toyota, and everybody from Joe Gibbs Racing for getting me out here and giving me this opportunity. I got my wife and kids here – it’s the first time the kids have got to be here for one of dad’s wins.

“I can’t tell you what this means to me,” Hornish said. “I’ve worked so hard to try to get a win when I had my kids here. The fact of how this went on. I got to thank God, he makes things happen. I was so nervous on Friday, getting into the car thinking, ‘I’m gonna make a mistake,’ man, to go out there and win the way that we did, I can’t say anymore about it. Thank you to TRD (Toyota Racing Development). Hope Matt’s (Tifft) doing well. Definitely want to thank the fans. Happy Father’s Day to everybody, this is definitely one of the best ones I’ve ever had, I can guarantee you of that.”

Ty Dillon came home second after running inside the top-five for the majority of the race. Dillon had a good car throughout the day, but could never get the track position to get ahead of Hornish. Hornish was able to hug the yellow line, and gain ground on those behind him, while Dillon was forced to run another the line to try and catch him.

“All we had was the top,” a dejected Dillon said. “The 18 was still better than us.

Brad Keselowski finished third after having to start in the back of the field for unapproved body modifications. Keselowski qualified seventh, but he, polesitter Erik Jones and Elliott Sadler were all busted by NASCAR, and were forced to start at the back. Of the three, Keselowski came away with the best result.

“We had a decent car today,” Keselowski said. “The 18 and 20 (Jones) were the class of the field.”

Daniel Suarez finished fourth after leading 62 laps. Suarez led the first 23 laps of the race before Hornish grabbed the lead, and was able to grab the lead throughout the day after pit stops, but could never hold on. Alex Bowman finished fifth. It was Bowman’s second top-five of the year.

Elliott Sadler finished sixth followed by Justin Allgaier, Brennan Poole, Darrell Wallace, Jr. and Ben Kennedy. Kennedy was making his series debut in the No. 2 Ruud Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. He noted before the race his goal was to come away with a top-10 finish, and he did just that.

Polesitter and two-time 2016 winner Erik Jones finished 27th after dropping seven laps early in the race. Jones ran into fuel pickup issues shortly before the first caution on Lap 40. Jones eventually had to go behind the wall and change the fuel cell, which cost him several laps.

Daniel Suarez continues to lead the points with Elliott Sadler scored in second.