(UPDATE) -- In only his third Cup Series start, open wheel master Sam Hornish Jr. became part three of the Penske Racing success story on Sunday. Penske drivers Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch finished first and second respectively, but rookie Hornish finished a surprising 15th. He was pleased with his performance. "To do what we set out to do which was, we wanted to get a top-20 finished and we were able to accomplish that," said Hornish.

Despite being an Indy 500 Champion and despite a solid rookie Cup debut on Sunday, he continues to soak up as much knowledge as he can in NASCAR's top series. "Ya know, everybody has told me what a good job I did. I feel that there's a lot of thing I have left to learn yet."

Hornish gets feedback from some unlikely sources. "The guys are the big names and the guys that you wouldn't think would want to help a rookie out or would want to talk to them or anything like that are usually the guys that are the first ones to come over and try to help you out."

Hornish and the rest of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field now prepare for the two mile "D" oval at California Speedway.