Sam Hornish Jr. will enter familiar waters as he returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this Sunday to participate in the Allstate 400.

Hornish collected a victory in last year’s Indy 500. The victory was of many during his prevailing open-wheel career for Roger Penske. He has not found the same type of success that he experienced in the IRL. He has yet to finish inside the Top-10, finishing no higher than 13th place.

"We've been on a roller coaster, been on a lot of lows and we're waiting for it to come back up," said Hornish. "When we started out the season, we thought if we could be in the top 25 in points, win rookie of the year [it] would make it feel like a wonderful season."

It is still possible for Hornish to catch Regan Smith at grab the Rookie of the Year award. Although a spot in the Top-25 may be a little out of reach due to his performance, it remains achievable.

"We really should be in the top 25 in points," Hornish explained. "I've made mistakes and we've made mistakes as a team."

Hornish hopes to be the first driver to kiss the bricks in the IRL and NASCAR stating, "I just wanted to lay out there forever." Hornish continued, "I didn't know how they would come and scrape me up over there. ... I would love to be the first guy to kiss the bricks after the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400. I'm looking forward to having a really good day."