Sam Hornish Jr. had a promising night skid off course after a crash on lap 142 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: John Harrelson/NASCAR via Getty Images

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

Sam Hornish Jr.’s season heading into Texas was like a college student in the mid 90’s after using a cheat code on Mortal Kombat — in other words flawless victory. Through five race Hornish had racked up four top-fives, and five top-10 finishes and he had a firm stranglehold on the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings.

Hornish’s season, and his championship hopes took a little bit of a beating Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

The night started off great for Hornish and the No. 12 team, in fact he led four times for a total of 29 laps during the 200 lap event, but when he was mired deep in the pack due to pit strategy things began to unravel. On lap 142 Hornish got tangled up with Jeremy Clements coming off of turn four. The two slammed into the wall, skidded into the grass, and slammed into each other one final time before finally going on their way.

“Just one of those deals, you know we’ve got fresh tires while other guys are sliding around there,” a disappointed Hornish said following the race.

Hornish’s car was beaten and bruised, but it appeared he would be able to soldier on and possibly rebound like he did at Phoenix earlier in the year. However it soon became apparent that Hornish’s damages were more severe than could be seen, as he continued to cut down tires under the yellow flag, once almost losing control of his car.

The No. 12 would go behind the wall, and any chance at salvaging a good run had gone out the window for the Penske Racing driver. When all was said and done Hornish wound up 34th, 41 laps off the pace, and all but two points, of his 28 point lead heading into the weekend, had evaporated by the race’s conclusion.

However this rough night may actually be a blessing in disguise for Hornish and his team. It’s easy for a mediocre team to capitalize on good luck, but it takes championship caliber teams to rebound from night’s like the one Hornish had Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. This will be the first true test for the No. 12 car of 2013, how well will they respond? We’ll have to wait and see, but I fully expect them to come back even stronger, and the main source of proof of that theory was in what Hornish said following the most frustrating race he’s had in what seems like forever.

“I just for our whole Alliance Truck Parts team wish we could play it over again, but we can’t. As long as we keep putting cars like this and running as well as we did for the first three quarters of the race, we’re going to have a lot more opportunities at it. We’re just going to keep our heads up and move forward, and we’ll do the best we can to try to build that points lead back up.”

Hornish isn’t dwelling on the present, he’s looking forward to the future and he’s keeping his head held high. Texas was just a speed bump, a speed bump that championship teams learn ways around next time.