Hornish linked to Indy 500 return

"It's a rare opportunity to have someone of David's calibre to work with Kurt (Busch), Ryan (Newman) and Sam to help us improve our NASCAR Sprint Cup programme," said Tim Cindric, president of Penske Performance Inc. "David has raced the new car and understands what it takes to compete at the highest levels."

Penske officials didn't address the issue of Hornish and the Indy 500 in their announcement about Stremme, however. Speculation was raised on Tuesday by several publications, including NASCAR.com, that Hornish would interrupt his Sprint Cup career to drive a third Penske car at Indy.

Penske currently have three entries in the Indy 500 - the two regular cars for Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe and an extra No. 77 car with its driver listed as TBA.

Hornish drives the No. 77 Dodge for Penske's Sprint Cup team.

Hornish won the Indy 500 in 2006 and is a three-time IRL IndyCar Series champion. He moved from Penske's IndyCar team to their NASCAR squad during the off-season, but like that of many of the other single-seater drivers this season, the transition has been difficult.

Hornish is currently 33rd in the Sprint Cup standings, 610 points behind leader Jeff Burton and better than only three other drivers who have competed in all eight races this year. Hornish's best finish was 15th at the Daytona 500.

He had finished outside the top 20 in six consecutive races before finishing 20th Saturday night at Phoenix.

Stremme, 30, is a native of South Bend, Indiana, who moved to national NASCAR competition in 2003 and has made 74 Cup starts since 2005. This year, Stremme has made seven starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, posting two top-five and three top-10 finishes.

"It's an honor to be working with an organisation with as much history and heritage as Penske Racing," said Stremme. "I look forward to a lot of productive testing so I can assist their NASCAR teams to run up front, make the 'Chase' and hopefully win many championships in the future."

Stremme will continue to drive for Rusty Wallace's Nationwide Series team.