#12-Sam Hornish Jr. is fighting for much more than a NASCAR Nationwide Series championship over the next two weekends. He s fighting for the chance to stay in NASCAR. During the ESPN prerace show for Saturday s Nationwide race at Phoenix International Raceway, former Penske Racing driver Rusty Wallace reported that Roger Penske is hoping to retain Hornish for next season but a continuation is dependent on securing sponsorship money. Hornish has been advised to shop his services elsewhere just in case Team Penske is unable to seal the deal.( Popular Speed )(11-9-2013) UPDATE: Hornish met with the media Thursday afternoon at Homestead-Miami; ANY UPDATE FOR NEXT YEAR? ‘Nothing new at this point in time. I continue to talk to people and try to figure out what the best options are gonna be and actually what the options are. There s a lot of uncertainty at this point in time, but I feel as if we ll be able to make something happen. But, like Ive said in the past, it s all about trying to position me to move forward in some way. I dont want to take anymore steps backwards or be in something thats not gonna give me the opportunity to go out there and be competitive and have an opportunity to at least run in the top-10.”(Ford Racing)(11-14-2013) UPDATE 2: With Penske Racing cutting back to one Nationwide team for 2014 and with no plans to expand its Sprint Cup operation, Hornish has known for several months that his decade-long professional relationship with The Captain would conclude at season s end. ‘Roger has given me some opportunities that maybe a lot of people would have said, ‘Why do you do that? We came really close to proving a lot of people wrong. Regardless of the final outcome, I think we showed a championship performance this year. We raced with a lot of good guys like Brad and Joey, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart – and we finished second to a lot of them, we beat some of them and just came up shy of the championship.” Penske has frequently acknowledged his error in promoting Hornish to Sprint Cup in 2008 instead of guiding him on a progressive path through the Nationwide tour. Communication between driver and crew chief was the greatest challenge for Hornish, who in open-wheel racing had relied on computers to relay the feel he was getting from the car. However, after Hornish spent most of the past three years in Nationwide ranking fourth in 2012 and second this season Penske believes his former Indy star deserves a NASCAR ride. ‘To see Sam race (Saturday) at the level he did with Kyle, right there all night, shows what a great racer he is’ Penske said after the event. ‘My issue with myself is I started him in the Cup level with no practice – one of the greatest open wheel racers we had in IndyCar. I think maybe I started his career backwards.” Hornish doesn t feel the need to rush into a deal for 2014. After struggling for three Cup seasons in decent equipment for Penske Racing and producing a career best 28th-place finish in points in 2009, he would rather ‘sit home than run as a back marker. ‘I feel like I ve come to put myself in a position where I m just going to bang my head against the wall and not have any opportunity to go out there and win’ he said. ‘Where I m at outside of racing, with having a real great family and also having worked real hard to financially secure myself, I do this because I want to do it. I m not going to do it just to be out there and say I m a racecar driver. I have a lot of things in my life that I feel real lucky to have. By putting myself into something that s not capable of winning or not safe enough, I don t need to do it which is a blessed thing to be able to say.” Although Hornish s employment status looked bleak the past few months, the phone has recently started to ring. ‘For a while there, it looked like there wouldn t be any opportunities’ Hornish said. ‘But isn t it just that? It s almost like when you date a girl, you have all these other girls that want to date you and then when you don t have a girlfriend it s really hard to find one”¦”( FoxSports )
