RICHMOND, Va. – Add jeans to the laundry list of purported lucky clothing in motorsports. But this story has a twist.
A few days before Sam Hornish Jr. claimed the biggest victory of his auto racing career in the 90th Indianapolis 500, a local shopping adventure included a gift of Rock & Republic jeans for his wife of almost two years Crystal.
Of course, she wore the hot fashion item on Race Day, which included an extended visit to Victory Lane. A myth was born.
The jeans didn't make it out of the motorcoach because of the quagmire at Watkins Glen International the next week, and the mojo didn't work out too well at Texas Motor Speedway. But at Richmond International Raceway, the freshly laundered jeans graced Victory Lane again.
Hornish dominated the SunTrust Indy Challenge presented by XM Satellite Radio, leading the final 212 of 250 laps on the 0.75-mile tricky oval. The victory – the second of the season and 16th of his IndyCar Series career – vaulted the Marlboro Team Penske driver to within five points of leader and teammate Helio Castroneves in the standings at the halfway mark.
Could this be the year team owner Roger Penske fills the lone blank space in his trophy case with an Indy Racing League championship cup? Seven events remain, including a road-course race at Infineon Raceway. Next up is the Kansas Lottery Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway (July 2), where Hornish and Castroneves recently had strong Open Tests.
In 2002, Hornish – then with Panther Racing – denied Penske of the championship in the season finale at Texas. The two-time series champion would like to repay Penske and team president Tim Cindric.
'That's what I told Roger and Tim Cindric after winning the Indianapolis 500 in the close fashion that we did,' Hornish said. 'I said, 'I hope that makes up for Texas in '02.' They said "well, they didn't really say anything. They wanted both, I think.
'But that's the good thing about that team, they all want more. I think that being able to come out here and to be running the way we are for the championship (is impressive). Last year, it was a major uphill struggle. We went through the first six races of the season thinking we had a shot and things kind of fell apart for us. We had some bad races and Dan (Wheldon) went on to continue to win a bunch of races.
'I just look at it as to be able to give Roger something that he first of all can't buy; and second of all has never been able to get before is an unbelievable thing. Indy was almost as satisfying for me to be able to win that for him as it was for me, and I think a championship would be even better.
'So we're just going to keep going. Try to win some more races. Try to make sure that we make it to the end of all of them, and hopefully we'll keep going with it and we'll do everything we need to do to win that championship. I don't want it to be one of those close things where I come down to the last race and I'm 10 points ahead of Helio and I have to win the race to beat him.
'I want it to be a little bit easier. I want to go in there and have 30 points at least. Probably won't happen, but we're going to try.'
Crystal Hornish, clad in the lucky Rock & Republic jeans, will do her part on race day.
