Sam Hornish Jr. continued to make the most of his "audition" season with Penske Racing.
The former IndyCar Series champion, who had a rocky start in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing, turned in another strong performance Saturday night in the Nationwide race at Iowa Speedway.
Hornish finished third, behind Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier, in the U.S. Cellular 250.
That gave Hornish 13 top-10 finishes in 20 races this season. He's still looking for his first win of 2012, but Hornish has six top-five finishes and is 34 points out of first place with 13 races left in the season.
Despite a decade with Penske Racing, including time in open-wheel racing, Hornish said last week he feels like he is "auditioning" for a Sprint Cup ride with owner Roger Penske.
A couple of Penske opportunities for 2013 seem to be at Hornish's doorstep: a third Sprint Cup car Penske plans to go with the Nos. 2 and 22, or the No. 22 car, which needs a driver for next year after AJ Allmendinger was fired for failing two drug tests.
Hornish drives the No. 22 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.
Hornish drove full-time in the Cup series from 2008-2010, but did not win a race in those three years, and then lost his ride when sponsorship backed out.
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