LOUDON, N.H. – It's widely expected that Sam Hornish Jr. will try to run the entire 36-race Nextel Cup schedule in 2008. However, Friday could be an ominous preview of how difficult that task might be.
Hornish came up short in his first attempt to qualify for a Nextel Cup race. Of the 49 cars attempting to make Sunday's Sylvania 300 at here New Hampshire International Speedway, Hornish was 45th fastest, which wasn't good enough to get him into the 43-car field.
"It doesn't give you a real warm and fuzzy feeling," he said, looking forward to next season when he'll possibly have to race his way in every week, "but obviously it's something that you're going to go through."
Adding insult to injury, Hornish felt he should have made the field easily considering he was 20th-fastest in practice. But, he said, he was too cautious during qualifying, evident by the fact that his qualifying lap of 126.631 mph – nearly four mph off Clint Bowyer's pole-winning speed – was more than one mph slower
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