Penske confirms Hornish to run NASCAR Cup
Reports circulated earlier this year that Hornish would leave the IRL for a full time NASCAR ride in 2008 with Mobile 1 as a sponsor. Hornish would become teammate to current Cup drivers Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.
As the Indy Racing League prepares for this weekend’s event at Belle Isle near Detroit team owner Roger Penske confirmed that after the IRL season ends September 9th, Hornish would be entered in up to five of the remaining Nextel Cup events in 2007.
"Of course, first he has to qualify," Penske told reporters. CupScene.com
Three-time IndyCar series champion Sam Hornish Jr. tested a Car of Tomorrow car twice this week as he prepares to compete in five COT races later this season.
Hornish, who is considering a move to Nextel Cup next year driving a third car for team owner Roger Penske, tested Monday and Tuesday at Memphis and Nashville. Kurt Busch, who drives for Penske in the Cup series, attended the Memphis test to help Hornish.
"We knew at the beginning of the year, part of the plan was to get seat time in a Cup car and see what I like about that and what I didn't like about it," Hornish said Thursday in Detroit where he'll compete in Sunday's Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix. "I really just got my first two days in the car and it's a lot different than a Busch car. It was something to go from the Indy car to the Busch car to see how much less downforce it had and now to go to that [COT] car, it's still another version of that, another big step."