Hornish 'thinking about' Castroneves
Penske racer Sam Hornish Jr said he was 'thinking about' his former IRL IndyCar Series teammate Helio Castroneves, who has become embroiled in a tax evasion scandal
But Hornish Jr ruled himself out of contention for Castroneves' IndyCar drive if the Brazilian is unable to race next season.
Hornish preferred to avoid making any judgements about Castroneves' situation but said the whole issue was unfortunate for the driver he was paired with in Penske's IndyCar team between 2004 and 2007.
"I don't have a lot to say about that," Hornish said. "It's unfortunate for sure and you know, we'll think about him being one of our Penske Racing teammates."
Former IRL IndyCar Series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Hornish is currently in his first full season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, and currently hold 35th place in the standings and is battling for Rookie of the Year honours.
At Talledega today he failed to qualify for a race for the first time this season but says he is still committed to staying where he is next year, even if a race seat at Penske's IndyCar squad is left vacant should Castroneves' legal issues eventually prevent him from competing in 2009.
"I've got a big commitment to (Penske NASCAR sponsor) Mobil 1 and they've also committed to me for the next couple of years and also just with Penske Racing in general," Hornish told autosport.com at Talladega.
"Yeah, we're one big team when we're Indycar, NASCAR and ALMS. But these guys have done a lot of hard work for me and I feel like we've grown a lot and I feel like we've got a good opportunity to continue to grow.
"I'm planning on being here and we'll have to see what happens as far as everything else goes."
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