<table> </table> INDIANAPOLIS | Sam Hornish Jr. doesn&#8217;t remember the first time he was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was minus-1 month old &#8212; his mother was eight months pregnant.</p><p>But he sure remembers the last time he was here. It was two years ago, and it was the biggest day of his auto-racing career. He won the Indianapolis 500.</p><p>This weekend, Hornish will be back at the speedway for the first time since that day in 2006, and he hopes it will result in an even bigger career day.</p><p>Hornish will be driving a stock car this time &#8212; a Sprint Cup car. He will be at the world&#8217;s most famous track to compete in the Allstate 400 on Sunday afternoon.</p><p>Clearly jacked up, the driver known for a sparing use of the spoken word was talking rapid fire about the weekend.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really looking forward to it,&#8221; Hornish said. &#8220;I am really happy to have had the opportunity to not only run there in IndyCar, but now I am getting the opportunity to get in a stock car. I think it&#8217;s going to be a really good weekend for us. Regardless of the on-track stuff &#8212; just the opportunity to be back in Indianapolis should be really fun.&#8221;</p><p>There&#8217;s the rub &#8212; that &#8220;on-track stuff.&#8221;</p><p>When Hornish arrived for the 500 two years ago, he was a favorite. He was on the pole and driving the type of car in which he had won a couple of IndyCar championships. And he was driving for an owner who has won more 500s and open-wheel championships, by far, than anyone else: Roger Penske.</p><p>Hornish will be driving a Penske car again this weekend, but a Penske stock car &#8212; a car that has not come close to winning a championship in a very long time. And he will be driving that car for just the 22nd time in his life.</p><p>Hornish&#8217;s excitement level ebbed &#8212; a bit &#8212; when he thought about that.</p><p>&#8220;I guess I don&#8217;t know what to expect,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We didn&#8217;t have an opportunity to go test there, so there a lot of unknowns for me.&#8221;</p><p>Not that Hornish, who is 33rd in points and has just two top-15 finishes in this, his first full Sprint Cup season, doesn&#8217;t have a couple of things going for him.</p><p>He had a couple of good moments at big, fast tracks this year. He ran up front at Daytona and qualified in the top 10 at California and Atlanta. Hornish also knows the Indy track well.</p><p>And then there is the fact that another Indy 500 winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, finished second at the Brickyard last year.</p><p>&#8220;I think that anytime you can watch someone who has a similar background, as far as things they have done &#8230; come over and have that kind of success keeps you very optimistic about what your opportunities might be,&#8221; Hornish said.</p><p>If good memories produce positive thoughts that, in turn, produce success, Hornish may be very tough to beat on Sunday.</p><p>That victory on Memorial Day weekend in 2006 still produces good memories for Hornish.</p><p>The way he won that race made it an instant classic: He was well back of leader Marco Andretti with a couple of laps to go, and it appeared he would have to settle for second place. But on the final lap, he put on a charge that ended with him passing Andretti a couple of car lengths from the finish line.</p><p>&#8220;I just remember getting down there and running against Marco at the end of the race,&#8221; Hornish said. &#8220;I had the opportunity to pass him, and he cut me off. And I passed him at the very last second. I thought I couldn&#8217;t have scripted it any better.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very memorable for me; I am sure it is for other people.&#8221;</p><p>Still, he didn&#8217;t know how to react.</p><p>&#8220;I was kind of in shock that we had actually won, because I just remember that whole month for us was just about doing our own thing,&#8221; Hornish said. &#8220;We were fast when we went there for the open test. We were fast from the first day of practice. It was just one of those flawless months.&#8221;</p><p>Practically flawless. Penske himself was making the calls for Hornish from the pit box on race day. During a late stop, Penske told Hornish to go &#8212; with the fuel hose still in the car.</p><p>&#8220;I made a mistake in the pits,&#8221; Penske admitted.</p><p>But the mistake was not fatal.</p><p>&#8220;Roger stayed real confident and calm on the radio,&#8221; Hornish said.</p><p>Even as he reminisces, Hornish will be thinking about the future.</p><p>He insists that he is committed to staying in NASCAR, and nothing would reaffirm that commitment more than a trip to victory circle at Indy in a stock car.