Photo finish

Sam Hornish Jr. and the No. 12 Alliance racing team narrowly lost the NASCAR Nationwide Cup at November’s end-of-season Ford EcoBoost 300 race. Sponsored by Alliance Truck Parts, a division of Daimler Trucks North America, the Hornish team finished the Nationwide season with 1,177 points—just three points behind eventual champion Austin Dillon in his No. 3 Chevrolet. 

Though Hornish managed to stay in the leaderboard mix for much of the 200-lap race—climbing as high as 3rd at one point—a series of caution flags late in the race dropped him to 8th place, giving Dillon (with a 12th place finish) the time, position and points needed to take the series title.