Hornish takes Phoenix, Stenhouse Jr. widens points lead

Avondale, AZ – Former IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr. won a filled Wypall 200 Nationwide Series event at Phoenix International Raceway.

Hornish, who is running a partial Nationwide schedule for Penske Racing this season, took the lead from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after a restart on lap 140. He then held off his teammate Brad Keselowski in three more late-race restarts before beating Keselowski at the finish by a half-second for his first win in his 32nd Nationwide start.

Stenhouse's fifth-place finish allowed him to take a 41-point lead over Elliott Sadler with only one race to go -- next Saturday at Homestead, FL. Sadler's hopes of winning the championship in NASCAR's second-tier series essentially came to an end after he was involved in a five-car accident with 24 laps to go, leading to his 27th-place finish. He entered the penultimate race 17 points behind Stenhouse.

All seven cautions in the 200-lap race were caused by accidents on the newly repaved and reconfigured one-mile track.

Carl Edwards finished third, while Joey Logano took the fourth spot.