Mobil to sponsor 3rd Penske entry in 2008

UPDATE #2 This rumor is upgraded to 'strong' today. Penske Racing appears to be expanding to three teams in 2008, and former Indianapolis 500 champion Sam Hornish Jr. likely will fill that seat. Hornish is expected to compete in an unspecified number of Nextel Cup races toward the end of this season, team owner Roger Penske said Sunday morning at New Hampshire International Speedway. "We're looking at it," Penske said of the third team. "We definitely are very interested in doing that, but we have to look and see where we are with Hornish. That'll be a deciding factor on exactly what we do." More than likely Mobil 1, the sponsor on Hornish's Busch car and an associate sponsor on both Penske Cup cars, would be the primary sponsor on the Cup car. Mobil 1 and Penske have had a long association. With this apparent plan to expand to three teams with Hornish, Penske said he is not in the running for free agent Kyle Busch. Busch's older brother, Kurt, early last week lobbied on behalf of his brother during a national teleconference saying Penske Racing would be "stupid" not to talk to his brother. ESPN.com

06/10/07 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." Scenedaily.com

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."

06/08/07 Jayski is rumoring that long-time Penske sponsor Mobil 1 will sponsor a 3rd Penske Racing South Nextel Cup entry in 2008. Multi-car teams appear to have an advantage in NASCAR and given the fact that Penske cars cannot win we're not surprised to see the team expand.