Sam Hornish Jr Q&A

"So far so good. We've been through the getting to know each other stage. Marlboro Team Penske has so much tradition and heritage that it's kind of tough to come in here and know what to expect. I knew what to expect on track - they've got the best-prepared cars and everything you need. I didn't know what to expect as far as personalities are concerned, but I've had more fun having dinners with Tim Cindric and Helio and Roger than I ever expected I would. It's light-hearted, a lot of great stories. I've really enjoyed it. They've always had such a winning tradition and I just hope I can keep that up. You add a different driver, and I'm sure it will take us a little bit to really work together at 100 percent. Hopefully by the beginning of the first race we'll have everything spot-on and know what each other needs."



"Definitely. You look at the Marlboro drivers from the past, from Al Unser Jr. to Rick Mears, even de Ferran and Castroneves, and all the success that they've had. It's tough to step into that suit because a lot is expected, but nobody puts more pressure on me than I do. The way I look at it, I know I'm always going to try really hard to win and if I don't win, that's not good enough for me. There's not more pressure than that."



"I get asked a lot how I feel about the split and how it affects me. I wish there was only one series because it would bring the fans back together. Right now, if you have 30,000 fans at one race on a weekend and 30,000 at another race, that's a race where you could have 60,000 fans. On the other hand, I don't know if I would be where I'm at if it wasn't for the IRL because I don't think that opportunity was there in CART, the way that it was based. PDM Racing couldn't have afforded to go race, and that would have been it. Instead I was able to compete, got picked up by Panther and now I'm at Penske."



"This testing will carry over to the other mile tracks. Both ends are different. There are a fair amount of bumps here, and the bumps help you at Richmond to put the power down even though the tracks are different. The fact that one corner is tighter than the other helps you out for Nazareth. Phoenix is the big place, because in my opinion, getting the year started off with a bang is the biggest thing. You want to start good and build your momentum into the season. Miami is like Texas or Chicago but the corners are a little bit tighter with longer straights. I don't think there will be as many lanes as there are at some other tracks but there will be some good racing."



"The car has changed quite a bit in its looks and some of the rule changes by the IRL have taken away some of the downforce. I'm all for that because it brings the drivers back into it. While it's great to have a lot of close races, sometimes it's good to get them a little more spread apart. It's good to have five or six guys fighting for the lead, side by side, but if you get the whole field up there and you can't really move around, there are too many risks involved."



"What they are doing is probably the right thing to do. There are so many cars running up there and in order to keep them at reasonable speeds they have to put so much wing on them. That hurts because with so much wing, almost anybody can drive the car. It's more about patience and it's almost like a restrictor plate race. I think when they take that away they are going to give us a little bit more flexibility with our wings so that we're close to the same speed but a little bit more on the edge. That will help because it'll separate us a little bit. Some people will go with a higher downforce setup to move through the corners and keep the momentum up, especially if you take some horsepower away. It's always about momentum - you can't really drive it hard in there and get off the gas, it's more about just being smooth. I think the drivers that have done well on the short tracks where you could get the car on the edge are going to continue to excel."



"I think the IRL is right to go road course racing, but the ovals brought us to where we are at right now. So they need to remember that and keep the schedule fairly balanced so that we keep those fans that we have. Some road course races have tons of fans and good viewership on TV, but others aren't as good. It's important to keep the right ones - that's the biggest thing. If we were going to have 18 races, I'd say we should have 3 or 4 road or street races. That will give you a little leeway and allow you to pick the best ones. If you went to eight, then you'd have to drop somebody."