Although Sam Hornish Jr. will not confirm where he will be racing next season, the two-time Indy Racing League champion sounds as if he is heading to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. “You never want to be the big fish in a small pond and the IRL continues to grow,” Hornish said Tuesday. “But sometimes, you want to try something different. Not saying that’s what I’m going to try different, but it’s been a possibility for quite a while now and I’ve been looking at it. You want to run where the fans are going to come and watch you.” Hornish didn’t dodge many questions, other than refusing to confirm which team the 24-year-old from Defiance, Ohio will drive for in 2004. “We’re pretty close to a decision with one team right now,” he said. “We are not negotiating with multiple teams right now. We are pretty close to a deal, but everything isn’t done yet.” In the past, Hornish had discussions with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and Hendrick Motorsports. Hornish said Saturday that DEI was not going to be his choice and that he had talked with Hendrick Motorsports. However, a sponsor source at Hendrick Motorsports said it was unlikely the two-time IRL champion had a deal in place. “Sam has a plan, but nobody seems to know,” a sponsor source from Hendrick Motorsports said. One possible NASCAR scenario has Tony Stewart leaving Joe Gibbs Racing for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Stewart would be able to compete in both Winston Cup and run in the Indianapolis 500 – something that has been a source of frustration with Gibbs. Stewart’s current team owner allowed him to run in both races in 1999 and 2001 but preferred him to stay out of the high-speed Indy cars to concentrate on NASCAR. If Stewart moves over to Ganassi, Gibbs could hire Hornish as his replacement – and ironically allow him to run in the Indy 500. Hornish said his next deal would include a chance to compete in the Indianapolis 500 – the biggest race in the world and a part of the Indy Racing League. “From now until the time I retire from racing, I’m going to make sure I can go there and run in that race every year,” he said. A key part of Hornish’s decision is that his personal services contract with General Motors ends at the conclusion of this year. That means he is free to walk away from any Chevrolet involvement and pursue other options. In NASCAR, that includes Dodge and Ford, with Toyota down the road. There seems to be something in Winston Cup racing that is luring him away from Indy car racing, something he has proven to be so good at in his three full seasons in the IRL. “I don’t know if I’m going to be successful in NASCAR,” Hornish said. “You go to different tracks and do different things. You go to short tracks, superspeedways, you go to drafting tracks and you go to road courses. Who knows if you can be successful at any of those tracks? If that is what I were to do, there is only one way to find out and that is to get in a seat and see what you can do.”(more at Sports Ticker via FoxSports ) AND Sam Hornish Jr. didn’t say he was leaving the Indy Racing League for NASCAR next year during Tuesday’s national teleconference, but the American star of the all-oval open-wheel series gave every indication he was following Tony Stewart’s career path. A day after announcing he would end his successful three-year run with defending IRL champ Panther Racing, Hornish all but said his next challenge would be with a roof over his talented head. And all signs point to Roger Penske’s multipurpose operation being his next stop. Dale Earnhardt Inc. announced earlier this year it was pulling out of the Sam Sweepstakes, while Michael Andretti’s IRL team was interested but doesn’t offer a NASCAR alternative. Chip Ganassi wanted to make Hornish an offer for stock cars or Indy cars but his sour relationship with Hornish’s agent, John Caponigro, squashed any chance of that happening. A Joe Gibbs ride would be good for Hornish should Stewart leave Gibbs for Ganassi before 2005. But Gibbs currently has no Indy 500 program. The likely candidate for Hornish’s services all along has been Penske, who fields a pair of cars in Winston Cup and the IRL. Everyone assumed the two-time IRL champ would be snatched up by “The Captain” for the IndyCar series but now it’s looking like he’d be teammates with Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves only at Indy. Penske, who runs Dodges in Winston Cup for Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace, would likely bring Hornish along like former USAC champion Newman — starting him in ARCA and Busch with only a couple of Cup appearances. Caponigro, who represents Mario and Michael Andretti plus Al Unser Jr., is thought to be after a three to five-year deal for Hornish, who was rumored to be making less than $500,000 this season at Panther Racing. Obviously, Panther took a chance on him in 2001 and it paid big dividends for both because now Hornish is ready to be compensated accordingly.( ESPN – Robin Miller ) past news on Hornish, see my Drivers Looking page in the MISC section.(8-20-2003)
