Another Indy Driver Heads To NASCAR

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- <a href="http://www.indycar.com/drivers/driver.php?driver_id=23" target="_blank">Sam Hornish Jr.</a> is leaving the <a href="http://www.indycar.com/" target="_blank">IndyCar</a>

Thursday, November 8th 2007, 11:57 am

By: News On 6

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Sam Hornish Jr. is leaving the IndyCar Series for a full-time ride in NASCAR, joining a long list of open-wheel stars who are flocking toward America's most popular racing series.

The three-time IndyCar champion will drive the No. 77 Dodge next season for Penske Racing with Mobil 1 as the sponsor.

"I feel like this is something that is a new and unique challenge for me," Sam Hornish Jr. told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It may or may not be the right way to look at it, but I feel like I accomplished just about everything in Indy cars. I got to do more than I ever thought I would."

Penske will officially introduce Hornish as the third driver for his NASCAR team on Saturday night at the Penske Racing Museum in Phoenix. He'll join a team that already fields cars for Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.

He'll join Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti and Jacques Villeneuve as former Indianapolis 500 winners and IndyCar series champions now racing NASCAR. Patrick Carpentier is also moving to stock cars after a long open-wheel career, and AJ Allmendinger fled Champ Cars for NASCAR this season.