Hornish, Franchitti to drive in Indy 500

UPDATE This rumor is downgraded to 'false' today. Sprint Cup rookies Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr., the men who won the last two Indianapolis 500s, will not compete in the race next month. Their NASCAR team owners — Chip Ganassi for the #40 Dodge Franchitti drives and Roger Penske for the # 77 Dodge Hornish drives — both said the Indy 500 is not part of the plan this season. The two Cup rookies will concentrate on the Coca-Cola 600 Cup race that day (May 25) at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Penske, who is traveling in Europe this week, called Rusty Wallace on Tuesday from England to tell him Hornish would not race at Indy this year.

Penske wanted to end the speculation that David Stremme would replace Hornish in the Coca-Cola 600 so Hornish could race at Indy. The speculation about Hornish also brought rumors about Franchitti possibly returning to the Indy 500 next month to defend his victory from last season. But Ganassi made his feelings clear: "No way we're doing that," Ganassi said. Ganassi also said that Franchitti is totally committed to his move to NASCAR. ESPN.com

04/16/08 Penske Racing officially announced Tuesday that they have hired David Stremme as a test driver for its NASCAR Sprint Cup program. The move has many saying that it is part of a bigger plan that will allow Sam Hornish Jr to compete in the Indianapolis 500 next month.

"It's a rare opportunity to have someone of David's caliber to work with Kurt (Busch), Ryan (Newman) and Sam to help us improve our NASCAR Sprint Cup program," said Tim Cindric, president of Penske Performance Inc. "David has raced the new car and understands what it takes to compete at the highest levels."

Penske officials wouldn’t comment publicly on the issue of Hornish and the Indy 500. However speculation is that Hornish will interrupt his Sprint Cup career to drive a third Penske car at Indy.

Penske currently have three entries in the Indy 500 – the two regular cars for Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe and an extra No. 77 car with its driver listed as TBA.

Hornish drives the No. 77 Dodge for Penske's Sprint Cup team. Cup Scene