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AUTO RACING

IRL Driver Hornish Deliberating Jump To NASCAR

Published: Jul 21, 2007

LEXINGTON, OHIO - Sam Hornish Jr. has already exceeded the modest goals he set as a young child whose biggest dream was to someday drive in an Indianapolis 500.

Having won at the Brickyard a year ago, and with three IndyCar Series titles under his racing suit, at the age of 28 he's taking a long, hard look at what he wants to do next and whether it includes a risky jump to NASCAR.

"It's safe to say that the challenge of it intrigues me," Hornish said in the midst of preparations for this week's Honda 200.

Hornish is fifth in the IRL driver standings heading into the race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course - which Hornish first drove on 14 or 15 years ago when he sloshed through a rainy go-kart race. He is financially secure and has a reputation as a dependable, patient and productive driver.

At the same time, after eight years in IRL, he is itching for something new.

"One of the main reasons that I would even consider doing a stock-car program is again getting to the point that it's racing but it's still not the same thing," Hornish said. "It's a different discipline you have to learn, the tools you have to use are different. There's a lot of little things that you need to consider and adjust yourself for to be able to be competitive in that series."

No sooner were those words out of his mouth than he added, "Just because someone is good in one thing doesn't mean that they're going to be good in another."

There's no question Hornish has been very, very good in IRL. His win at Texas Motor Speedway last month was his 19th, more than anyone else in the series.

He had the fourth-fastest time during the two practice sessions Friday.

CHAMP CAR: At the halfway point of the Champ Car World Series season, Sebastian Bourdais feels like he's starting over.

After winning three straight championships, the 28-year-old St. Petersburg resident came into this season as a heavy favorite to make it an unprecedented four in a row. But a trio of bad runs in the first seven races of the 16-race season have Bourdais locked in a tussle for the top spot in the standings with Dutch rookie Robert Doornbos and last year's top rookie, Australian Will Power.

Bourdais got off to a good start Friday, taking the provisional pole for the Grand Prix of Edmonton, adding a point to his total and moving Bourdais into a tie with Power for second - two points behind surprising leader Doornbos.

FORMULA ONE: If a lingering cold and the looming threat of punishment for his team is affecting Lewis Hamilton ahead of the European Grand Prix in Nuerburgring, Germany, he is not showing it.

The Formula One rookie who is leading the championship set the pace in Friday's two 90-minute practice runs for Sunday's race. He had the fastest time of the day in 1 minute, 32.515 seconds around the 3.2-mile circuit during the morning session, and the second-best run in the afternoon in his McLaren.

Kimi Raikkonen, coming off two straight wins in France and Britain, topped the afternoon session in 1:33.339, ahead of Hamilton by .139 seconds.

Hamilton has insisted this week he hasn't been distracted by the upcoming hearing by the sport's governing body next week into McLaren's conduct over trade secrets.