Sam Hornish Jr returns to NASCAR Sprint Cup with Richard Petty

Ambrose is heading back to V8 Supercars next year after nine seasons racing in America, having agreed to spearhead Penske's new alliance with Dick Johnson Racing in the Australian series.

Three-time IndyCar series champion and 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner Hornish has only raced sporadically in the Nationwide Series with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2014.

Although he lost his Penske Cup seat at the end of 2010, he stayed with the team and drove in two Nationwide seasons in 2012 and '13, finishing second in the championship in the latter campaign, and also returned to its top-level line-up for the second half of 2012 after AJ Allmendinger failed a drugs test.

The 35-year-old said he was much better placed to make the most of his chance with Petty than he had been when he first switched to NASCAR.

"I feel like I'm a lot better prepared. At the point that I was getting ready to go full-time on my first go round I had maybe 12 or 15 stock car races in general under my belt," said Hornish.

"This is a different opportunity than the one that I had previously.

"I'm not going to talk bad about anybody or anything like that, but there were a lot of different things that made that not work.

"The thing that I need to be thankful for over the long run is that I stayed in the fold long enough and held to my values of what I felt was going to get myself back into having the opportunity to be in a competitive Cup ride.

"I did the right things and had good people around me too in order to put myself in good positions and try to get back to this point.

"I've worked four years to get back to this point, and I feel like as a driver I've come a long way."

Aric Almirola, who reached the first round of the Chase this year by virtue of his win in the July Daytona race, remains in Petty's other Ford for 2015.