Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Hornish not ruling out NASCAR move

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 10:37 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Immediately after winning Sunday's Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and his second consecutive Indy Racing League championship, Sam Hornish Jr. discounted rumors that he was interested in moving to NASCAR's Winston Cup Series.

"When it comes down to it, if I could do whatever it took to win one of two races, whether it be the Indianapolis 500 or the Daytona 500, I'd definitely choose the Indianapolis 500," Hornish said on Sunday. "The Indianapolis 500 has been my driving motivation since I started."

But after making the 14 1/2-hour drive from Fort Worth to his home in Defiance, Ohio, Hornish was more open to the idea of moving from open-wheel cars to stock cars in the future.

"I want to be in the IRL because I really enjoy the racing there, I enjoy what it's all about and it gave me an opportunity I wouldn't have if it wasn't for the IRL," he said on Wednesday. "On the other hand, there have only been two drivers that have won the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 and I've got to win the Indianapolis 500 first before I can start thinking about that."

As Hornish was winning an IRL-record five races this season en route to his second championship, rumors began picking up steam that he was headed to NASCAR's Hendrick Motorsports or Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

"I don't know where all this stuff keeps coming from -- I guess people have pretty creative imaginations," Hornish said in denying the Hendrick rumor. "There have been plenty of people that I've talked to about different things for next year and I haven't been offered anything by Hendrick Motorsports.

"It's kind of a tough deal to get into because you want to let everybody know that you haven't been offered anything but, then again, you wouldn't want to deter anybody else (from making an offer). If you win a championship, you're in a good position because you can hear what everybody else has to say but you still can go back and run for the same team you've been running for."

At least for now, Hornish appears to be headed back to Pennzoil Panther Racing and the Indy Racing League with the knowledge that he is only 23 years old and likely has plenty of time to map out his racing future.

"There are other opportunities (in racing) ... and sometimes you have to test how good you are on both levels (NASCAR and the IRL) because somebody could say, 'yeah, you did good over there but what can you do over here?' " Hornish said.

"So (NASCAR) might be something that I have to try out at some point but as far as next year, I don't think that's going to happen -- within maybe the next five years it's probably not going to happen. I just turned 23 -- I've got a lot of years to go. Hopefully, I'll have a very long career and I'll be able to get to do all the things that I want to eventually."

Fisher, 21, will become the first woman to drive an F1 car since Italy's Giovanna Amati in 1992. Amati drove for Brabham but failed to qualify for a race. Another Italian, Lella Lombardi, is the only woman to score a point in an F1 race when she took sixth place at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix.

"I'm obviously very excited about driving a Formula One car in front of my home crowd," Fisher said. "It's extremely rare to get a chance like this and I can't wait. Hopefully it will help to promote Formula One in the USA and will also bring international attention to my series, the Indy Racing League, as well."

Fisher will drive the McLaren backup car -- which the team prepares for regular drivers David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen -- during the demonstration run.

"Through our 39-year history, we have never had a female drive one of our Formula One cars so I guess it's about time," said Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren International's managing director.

Gaughan won his second race of the year at Texas Motor Speedway last Friday and is running away with the NCTS Rookie of the Year battle. He goes into Saturday's race 11th in points and is looking forward to improving his position with races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 13), California Speedway (Nov. 2) and Phoenix International Raceway (Nov. 8).

"Right now, we're hitting what we feel is our most comfortable stretch (of the season)," Gaughan said. "We're going to Las Vegas, Fontana and Phoenix, which are all tracks that the NAPA/Orleans crew is very familiar with. They are all on the West Coast, so we'll be close to our shop in Las Vegas.

"I've won at both Vegas and Fontana (in the NASCAR Winston West Series) and we have our own notes to go back on -- and look what happened at Texas when had some good notes to come back to. Last week's victory moved us up into 11th in the points standings and we plan to keep moving up as high as possible."

The Hardee's 200 will be run under the lights on Friday, May 16 following qualifying for The Winston Open and The Winston. The 134-lap race will be the first truck race run in North Carolina since the Lowe's 250 at North Wilkesboro Speedway in September 1996. The Winston and Winston Open will be run Saturday, May 17.

"(Fukuyama) is about to race at a track the likes of (which) he has never seen anywhere in Japan," Benson said of the Monster Mile. "I know that he has probably never seen a track with as high of banks, concrete and as fast as Dover is."

Fukuyama will attempt to qualify for Sunday's MBNA All-American Heroes 400 in Travis Carter's No. 66 Ford.