Sam Hornish Jr.'s Nationwide Series championship hopes took a hit Friday night at Richmond, and so did the protective foam on the right side of Timmy Hill's car.
Hornish was racing for position with Justin Allgaier and Ty Dillon and was frustrated with Allgaier moving low to protect his position on the backstretch. That allowed Dillon to try to go around both drivers on the high side in turns three and four, but Dillon scraped the wall doing so.
When Dillon hit the wall, Hornish had nowhere to go, and the contact between the two cut down Hornish's right front tire. Hornish lost control of his car in turn one, and slid into the outside wall.
As he was sliding down the track, Hill couldn't get close enough to the inside line to avoid him and sideswiped the rear end of Hornish's car. The impact sheared the right side of Hill's car like a can opener, ripping the foam on the inside of the sheet metal to shreds and throwing pieces all over the track. The red flag had to be displayed for the cleanup of the foam.
Kevin Harvick won the race and Ricky Stenhouse closed within one point of Elliott Sadler for the points lead. Hornish is 50 points behind Sadler in fourth.
