LONG POND, Pa. - Amid rumors he is about to resurrect his third Nextel Cup team (possibly for Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr.), team owner Roger Penske said nothing has been decided concerning that for 2008.
Penske said Hornish, who won the Indy Racing League event Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, will compete in the ARCA race this coming weekend at Michigan and is still going with the part-time stock-car schedule laid out earlier this year.
"We haven't made any commitment on [a third team] at this point," Penske said Sunday prior to the Pocono 500. "There's lots of speculation. Sam has run some Busch races, is going to run ARCA in fact at Michigan next week. We've got a lot of moving parts right now, and I'm not committing to a third team at this point at all."
As far as Hornish possibly making his Nextel Cup debut in the Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Penske said that won't happen.
"We need to go to the Brickyard with the 2 [of Kurt Busch] and the 12 [of Ryan Newman] and execute there," he said. "We don't have a car. We need to go with our two best guys there and let him complete his season. We're done in September [with the IRL], which gives him a lot of time to run some races, which would give him a real opportunity to see where we are."
Penske also denied rumors he was looking at switching from Dodge to Toyota. He said he has a good relationship with Dodge and his teams are running well at the moment.
"Our Dodge commitment is a long-term contract," Penske said. "I read in the paper where we were switching to Toyota. We haven't even talked to them about it.
"We've got to honor the commitments that we have. In other times when we've had contractual relationships with our business partners, the last thing you do is jump from one thing to another. You never have continuity that way."
Penske said Hornish, who won the Indy Racing League event Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, will compete in the ARCA race this coming weekend at Michigan and is still going with the part-time stock-car schedule laid out earlier this year.
"We haven't made any commitment on [a third team] at this point," Penske said Sunday prior to the Pocono 500. "There's lots of speculation. Sam has run some Busch races, is going to run ARCA in fact at Michigan next week. We've got a lot of moving parts right now, and I'm not committing to a third team at this point at all."
As far as Hornish possibly making his Nextel Cup debut in the Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Penske said that won't happen.
"We need to go to the Brickyard with the 2 [of Kurt Busch] and the 12 [of Ryan Newman] and execute there," he said. "We don't have a car. We need to go with our two best guys there and let him complete his season. We're done in September [with the IRL], which gives him a lot of time to run some races, which would give him a real opportunity to see where we are."
Penske also denied rumors he was looking at switching from Dodge to Toyota. He said he has a good relationship with Dodge and his teams are running well at the moment.
"Our Dodge commitment is a long-term contract," Penske said. "I read in the paper where we were switching to Toyota. We haven't even talked to them about it.
"We've got to honor the commitments that we have. In other times when we've had contractual relationships with our business partners, the last thing you do is jump from one thing to another. You never have continuity that way."
