what now for Hornish ?

[marcus]

so yound Sam has wrapped up two titles in the IRL , so what will he do now ???

plenty of rumors going around about him anything from him stayting at Panther racing for another year or moving over to the Penske team to replace Gil or even heading off to Nascar land.

what do you think he will or should do for season 2003 ?

[rush1]

Panther has him under contract for 2003 so they would surely want a hefty price for anyone who wanted his services. Hornish really wants to win an Indy 500 and Panther offers the best hope (aside from Penske of cource). I bet he will stay with Panther for 2003.

[Down F0rce]

i hope he dont go off to SMASHCAR. Maybe Penkse could give Panther a cut in there free Toyota's in exchange for Hornish?

[BootsOntheSide]

I'm sure he'll do NASCAR someday, a lot of openwheel drivers go there these days, and for someone with such prodigious skill on ovals it could be the right move, maybe he can match Tony Stewart's impact.

However, I'm not so sure that 'someday' will be 2003. Staying with Panther and continuing to beat former CART star teams and drivers with much better reputations will really boost him, he and the team will certainly view Kanaan, Andretti and Franchitti as further challenges, and he should have Wheldon as team mate for the whole season.

[racer69]

I'd say NASCAR is a definate one day, also he has said he wants the Indy 500 as well.

I'm not sure moving to Penske would be a necessary move. He obviously has a great team at Panther, and what is seemingly a better achievement, beating Penske or winning in a Penske?

[macdaddy]

I wasn't aware that he was still under contract with Panther for next year. With all the speculation there's been surrounding his future, I thought he was a free-agent. And the speculation is rife. Some have suggested Pennzoil wants to make a driver trade, Hornish for deFerran, and move the Panther organization to CART. Of course, there's also been talk of a three-car Penske team, talk of Hornish to NASCAR...

The only thing I can say for sure is that, if he can avoid injuries, Hornish certainly has a bright future ahead of him. My prediction for his immediate future is status quo for 2003.

[mac]

The Panther to CART, Hornish to Penske, deFerran to Panther thing makes sense to me.

Correct me if I am wrong, but is Pennzoil not a Shell subsidiary? Shell currently have a fair bit interested in CART with Rahal and event sponsorship in Denver. So if Pennzoil said, let's go to CART, I think Panther may well go. However, Hornish won't. So perhaps deFerran is the man.

Problem is, if it makes sense, it's not going to happen.

[racer69]

The thing is that there are just heaps of rumours flying around at the moment.

I still reckon Panther will be in the IRL next year, they only recently confirmed an engine deal with Chevy, and are meant to be testing the new engine this week aren't they? Plus they have also confirmed that they are running a car in the Infiniti Pro Series next year.

Hornish has one further year left on his contract with Panther, thats why there was so much talk about the NASCAR thing, he would have needed permission to do it, and also Roger is rumoured to be offering big bucks to Panther to have him.

The thing is of course that these are just rumours, regarding the lot, we haven't heard anything from Roger, Sam, Panther, Ganassi, Haas, Red Bull, Scheckter etc.. regarding their plans. The only thing i've heard is de Ferran say he was planning to be back next year, whether that was a put on to make the interviewer happy or not, who knows?

[CleanTone]

I hope he will go to road racing. I see him as the best american racer in open wheel.(Maybe Buddy Rice....)

[Tiresmoke]

You obviously haven't seen Ryan Hunter-Reay. He's as spectacular on an oval as he is on a road course. he'll most likely be racing in europe next year.