RICHMOND, Va. — The final decision hasn’t been made, but it appears Sam Hornish, Jr. will leave the IndyCar Series to compete full-time in NASCAR Nextel Cup next season.
It’s not a matter of if Hornish will leave for NASCAR but when the announcement will finally be made. And although Hornish believes he will always be an IndyCar driver at heart, he doesn’t believe the series needs him any more.
“The League hasn’t said two words to me about it,” Hornish said, referring to the Indy Racing League, which sanctions the IndyCar Series. “You feel like they don’t need you sometimes.
“They’ve got their stars. That’s another reason why you might want to do something else.”
With much of the promotional effort for the IndyCar Series being focused on Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti, Hornish’s role as the only three-time IndyCar champion and winner of the 2006 Indianapolis 500 is overlooked.
Part of that could be the fact that he is sponsored by Philip Morris, which has not removed any of its tobacco decals from the Team Penske car but still won’t promote its two drivers, Hornish and two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, to anyone under 18 years old.
Hornish is currently running a mixed schedule of NASCAR Busch and ARCA races this season and has been relatively unimpressive in the Penske Racing stock car. But as one of America’s top race drivers, he appears primed to make the move to NASCAR Nextel Cup in 2008.
“All I do any more is answer the questions about the possibility of me running NASCAR, what my plans are for the future, or I think about it in my head, what I’m going to do or things like that,” Hornish said. “That gets frustrating to me because that’s all I do is answer those questions whether I have a good or a bad day.”
Hornish said the decision won’t be totally up to him, and if that’s the case, team-owner Roger Penske could move Hornish to the NASCAR operation and move in Ryan Briscoe, the Penske driver in the American Le Mans Series Porsche program who finished fifth in this year’s Indianapolis 500 for a team owned by Penske’s 28-year-old son, Jay.
“It has to be something the team wants to do one way or another,” Hornish said. “There are lots of variables. I don’t want to go over there and run and if we’re not in ‘The Chase’ and I get dropped. The other thing is I don’t want to stay over here and not have a sponsor that can live up to the commitment that Philip Morris can and you get dropped anyhow.
“I’m not saying either one of those two things might happen, but you have to weigh risk versus reward in regards to injury and safety. You also risk not being able to run the Indianapolis 500 or the length of schedule.”
Hornish admits he doesn’t feel as comfortable in a Penske stock car as in the Team Penske IndyCar, where he is among the very best.
“I feel comfortable in those cars to a point,” Hornish said. “The thing is whether or not I can deal with the schedule and put up with all the demands, whether it is be in the car that often or the demands with the fans or whatever. I know it’s a totally different world than anything I’ve jumped into so far.
“If I hadn’t won the Indianapolis 500, we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all. That allows me on one hand to go do that but on the other hand want to stay some more.”