I Am Indy: Ride, Sammy, Ride!

Sam Hornish Jr. won the Indy 500, and here's how he ended up making Marco Andretti look like, well, a 19-year old rookie. He qualified first, but a seemingly un-passable Dan Wheldon dominated most of the race with Hornish sitting back around third. Then — distaster struck. During a late-race pit stop a fuel hose got jammed in the car, broke apart, and spilled fuel all over the pit lane. But oh wait, it got worse...

...Hornish was given a drive-through penalty for his troubles, and he barely escaped that, having knocked wheels with Townsend Bell at the pit exit. Finally back on the racetrack, Hornish wasn't close enough to the front to challenge for the win.

But the caution flag came out on lap 190 when Giaffone got friendly with the wall in turn two. That allowed Hornish, Michael Andretti, and Marco Andretti to take the lead when Wheldon and the other frontrunners needed to make a final pit stop.

So when the race went back to green with four laps to go, the top three were Michael Andretti, his son Marco Andretti, and Hornish. Michael Andretti has been cursed to never, ever win the Indy 500, so he was quickly passed up by Marco and Hornish. Then Hornish made a charge at Marco, but got shut down and dropped a few cars back.

With one lap to go, Hornish gave it all he got to fight to the top, and made Marco his bitch on the final corner. Mirrors, kid, that's what your mirrors are for.

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