UPDATE:

If it seems Sam Hornish Jr. has been edgy of late, he has been. He admits it. “I haven’t been in a good mood since Watkins Glen,” he said of the July 8 race in upstate New York. “I had a great race and everything was taken away from me.”

Hornish was referring to the post-race car contact he took from fellow IndyCar Series driver Tony Kanaan, which led to Hornish’s father, Sam, shoving Kanaan on pit road.

Hornish, who finished second in the race, said he knows he shouldn’t have angrily approached Kanaan immediately after climbing from his car, but he didn’t think he was so far out of line to receive the same $25,000 fine as Kanaan, who intentionally bumped him heading to the pits.

Add that to the fact Hornish said he doesn’t believe the IRL knows how to market its top drivers and it seems he’s not interested in staying in the league.

A chance to drive in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup division is calling, although he hasn’t answered, at least publicly.

“It seems like I’m the first guy (in the IRL) to get an example made of me,” Hornish said Saturday at Infineon Raceway. “I like driving (these cars), and I like being competitive on the road courses, but . . . I don’t know.

“I guess you’re going to have to (come to) NASCAR races to find out if I’m in any better of a mood over there.”

Hornish will get his first chance to race a Nextel Cup car when the Indy-car season ends. It’s then the 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner says he’ll make a decision about next season.

[IndyStar.com]

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Three-time IndyCar Series champion Sam Hornish Jr. plans to run five to six of the final 10 races in the Nextel Cup season for Penske Racing, team owner Roger Penske said on Saturday.

“That’s the game plan right now,” Penske said before the start of the Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. “Obviously, he’s got to qualify. But he did a good job at Michigan and if there is a chance to run cars every week, we’ll see.”

“I told him the more experience you get the better you’re going to be,” Penske said. “We’ll see.”

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