Franchitti, Herta to keep on racing

However, it's unclear whether they'll be with AGR's IRL IndyCar Series team, their American Le Mans Series team or another team altogether.

The future of the two drivers, whose contracts with AGR expire at season's end, became a speculative issue last week when the team hired Danica Patrick for the 2007 season.

Herta and Franchitti both said they have more than one option.

"One of my favorite options would be to stay with AGR," Franchitti said. "I love working with TK (Tony Kanaan) and Marco (Andretti) and Bryan. Obviously it's not going to be Bryan and myself (on the IRL team) next season, but the team has said they want me to come back.

"Until a deal is done, there's nothing for me to talk about. There are a lot of different options right now in all kinds of series and all parts of the world. When there's a deal done, we'll talk about it."

Meanwhile, Herta said his choices are either returning to Andretti Green's IRL team or joining its new ALMS team.

"I have a couple of pretty good options, and I have a pretty good idea of what I think is going to happen," Herta said. "We're just now getting it all finalized."

Neither is considering retirement, as had been speculated.

"I'm 33 years old and I still love what I'm doing," said Franchitti, who finished 12th Sunday in the Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway. "Sure, it's been a frustrating season, but I still love my job. When that changes, I'll step out of the car.

"Until that changes, I plan to keep racing. I figure I'm one of these guys who's going to be doing it for a long time in one form or another."

Both drivers also said Patrick's hiring did not play a role in their options or their pending decisions.

"As I understand, Bryan told them what his preference was a long, long time ago," Franchitti said. "The team has said they want me back. It's just a case of trying to do a deal. We'll see from there. The Danica thing makes absolutely no difference to my decision."