It’s been a dismal season for @SamHornish.

Prior to his full-time return to the Sprint Cup Series this season with Richard Petty Motorsports, Hornish had competed in just 23 series events over the course of the past four years. Twenty of those came from a partial schedule with his former employer Team Penske, and the other two were a fill-in stint for the injured Denny Hamlin and a one-off deal with Front Row Motorsports.

RPM came into 2015 with a renewed feeling of promise and an extra skip in their step. The famed No. 43 team had made some great strides in 2014 with Aric Almirola, including a slot in the Chase and the return of Smithfield Foods, one of the leaders in the packaged meats category with several brands in their portfolio – including their popular bacon line. Hey, who doesn’t get excited about bacon anyway?

Prior to the Chase last season, Marcos Ambrose announced that he would not be returning to the team, leaving RPM with the task of finding a successor. David Ragan and Hornish were at the top of the list, and it had seemed as though Ragan was leading in the polls. Ultimately, Hornish got the nod and it was well received by his long-standing fan base, originating from his open-wheel days.

This season, Hornish has scored just three top-10s; one in the Daytona 500 and the others in both road courses. He’s currently 25th in the standings and has finished on the lead lap just seven times.

Nine years in the series with a total of 153 starts, he’s led less than 75 laps and finished in the top-10 only 12 times.

After ten races this season, crew chief Drew Blickensderfer was out and Kevin “Bono” Manion was in, but that hasn’t seemed to moved the needle in a positive direction.

As always, you can’t lay all the blame on the guy that holds the wheel. Richard Petty Motorsports had severed ties with their alliance team, Roush Fenway – whose Cup series program has been an anomaly for over two years – and I’m certain that the rest of the Ford camp is taking a backseat to Penske at this point with both cars solidly in the Chase.

Andrew Murstein, the majority partner in RPM brought primary sponsor Medallion Financial to the team. Murstein is also the founder, president and largest shareholder in the publicly held company. So, in essence, the No. 9 team is self-funded.

But, how deep can that hole be dug? Barney Visser self-supports his Furniture Row team, but that company is in a different category – and also yields on-track results.

2016 will probably have a different look and feel for RPM. The King has already moved into his new castle and they’re rumored to be changing manufacturers.

It’s likely that Sam Hornish will be done at RPM. And with the impending demise of Michael Waltrip Racing, I expect David Ragan to be on a very short list of candidates — including Regan Smith.

This racing stuff is a tough deal — especially at this level. Perpetual lackluster performances affect many components of a race team, but it’s usually the drivers that bear the greatest consequence.

EMAIL MIKE AT mike.calinoff@icloud.com

FOLLOW ON TWITTER: @MikeCalinoff

LIKE MIKE ON FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/MikeCalinoff

LIKE POPULAR SPEED ON FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/popularspeed

WEBSITE: www.mikecalinoff.com