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.”

Hornish said how he performs in the Cup races this fall will factor into his decision regarding next season. He said he is comfortable with the length of the Nextel Cup season and said that by the end of this year, he will have competed in the same number of races, combining his 17 IndyCar series races, in addition to the Busch, ARCA and Cup races.

“Obviously, it’s a very tough decision to make,” said Hornish, who is not in the running for the IndyCar championship with two races remaining. “We still haven’t made one. A lot of it will depend on how these [Cup] races go. If I don’t qualify for any of them, it doesn’t look very good.”

ESPN.com

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