Penske names Briscoe to replace Hornish

[Schwartz Fan]

Briscoe becomes IndyCar "Comeback Kid" as Hornish Jr's replacement


November 11, 2007
By Bruce Martin PA SportsTicker Contributing Editor

AVONDALE, Arizona (Ticker) When Ryan Briscoe left the IndyCar Series after a spectacular fiery crash where his car went airborne at Chicagoland Speedway on September 11, 2005, the conventional thinking was the young Australian had probably driven in his last IndyCar race.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIIL4y6EcEA[/YOUTUBE]

Two years later, Briscoe has become IndyCar's "Comeback Kid," named to replace the greatest driver ever created by the Indy Racing League, three-time champion Sam Hornish Jr.

"It really is amazing and goes to show how crazy this business can be sometimes," Briscoe said Sunday morning from his Davidson, North Carolina home. "After my 2005 season, it was a very rough season and going into 2006 I was without a permanent ride. It was plenty tough but I kept my chin up and kept showing my face at different events.

"I've been a pretty lucky guy in my career and I've always been able to have very good contacts with great teams and great people. Here is another great opportunity for me. It's going to be very important for me to make the most of it."

It's rare that a driver in open-wheel racing gets a second chance in an open-wheel series after such a disastrous first encounter but that's exactly what happened to Briscoe.

His Chicagoland crash was the last in a series of wrecks that Briscoe had been involved in the 2005 season. That's why team owner Chip Ganassi was more than happy to terminate his contract at the end of that season.

Now, Briscoe is replacing an IndyCar icon in Hornish, who moves over to Penske Racing's NASCAR Nextel Cup team for the full 2008 season.

Hornish made his first Cup start in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

"I'm just so excited about having a second chance again in the IndyCar Series," Briscoe said. "I definitely feel I have unfinished business after 2005. Coming back to Indy this year was a great step forward and I want to build on that."

Briscoe made a triumphant return to the Indianapolis 500 in May for Luczo-Dragon Racing, a team co-owned by Steve Luczo and Jay Penske, Roger Penske's youngest son.

With longtime Penske aide Jay Signore as team manager, and many members of Penske's American Le Mans Series team serving as his crew at Indy, Briscoe was impressive during the month of May and finished fifth in the Indy 500.

"Indy was an amazing month for me," Briscoe said. "I think I did a good job but at the same time I've got a lot to learn on ovals. I'm still quite inexperienced. Going into Indy I had first-class people working with me and equipment. With Roger behind that happening we weren't going to do it with anything less. It was a great month where I learned a lot.

"But it was just one race. There is nothing telling from that. I hope I made a good impression."

While the Indianapolis 500 has its share of "one-off" or "Indy-only" teams, Briscoe's operation at Indy could have contended for an IndyCar title.

It picked up the nickname "Sputnik" because it was basically a satellite team for Team Penske.

All of that has been taken into consideration for Briscoe's second chance.

"He was in a 'Perfect Storm' not to be in," Team Penske president Tim Cindric said of Briscoe's rookie season. "He was coming over in a situation where he had quite a bit less power and trying to overdrive the car. When you are a rookie you need to be learning the track but he was under pressure to perform as a team. He wasn't in the best situation there.

"We looked at that pretty hard to determine if he was the right fit for us but so far so good."

Briscoe asked Penske Racing for an opportunity to drive at Indy when he signed on with the Porsche ALMS program this year. They delivered and Briscoe performed well.

"I know he is appreciative of having a chance to run at Indy in good equipment and he did a great job," Cindric said. "We didn't let him get caught up in the qualifying game and he did a steady race and took advantage of an opportunity there, for sure."

Mike Hull, the managing director at Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, admits he'd be very happy to see Briscoe become "The Comeback Kid."

"Of any of the young guys coming along, he's at the top of the list in terms of drivers who deserve an opportunity to do that," Hull said. "He's a competitive guy and he works at getting better. When he was with us he was a testament to young, aggressive guys.

"With Penske Racing he'll run at the front."

Everything lined up perfectly for Briscoe with Hornish moving to NASCAR and Briscoe performing well for Penske Racing's ALMS team in 2007. As one of the drivers for the Penske Porsche, Briscoe was behind the wheel for a series championship including three wins.

"It's great timing at this point in my career," Briscoe said. "The fact I'm actually racing in America this is a great chance for me and I know the history Penske has and the drivers that have raced there and the drivers that have wanted to race, it really is an amazing feeling and I want to make the most of it.

"But it isn't something that just happened so quickly. I've been under their eye for a while and racing for them in the Porsche program I've been closely watched. I've earned the position and the timing of them moving Sam to the NASCAR ride really helped."

Penske is the most successful team owner in IndyCar history with a record 14 Indianapolis 500 wins, 134 victories and 11 national IndyCar championships. He believes he's made another winning move by hiring Briscoe.

"He had the experience with a year at Ganassi, had been involved in a lot of road racing and was a Formula One test driver and we were really impressed with the job he did with Porsche," Penske said. "We were really impressed with the job he did with the Porsche.

"There were two key points and No. 1 was to run him at Indy. He did a great job and was right there if it hadn't rained. No. 2, we wanted to see what he did with the Porsche program and he did very well. We tested him at Milwaukee and Sebring and he fits our mold. He's young and he understands the sponsor and I think he has a long career with us."

Briscoe joins two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves of "Dancing with the Stars" fame at Penske's two-car IndyCar team.

Briscoe was told this past Thursday that he would replace Hornish in the No. 6 IndyCar, a Dallara/Honda combination.

"Roger came down to the shop and came into the building and told myself it was going to happen," Briscoe said. "We've been talking about a lot the last couple of months and it was dependent on Sam making the move.

"The IndyCar Series is where I really wanted to be next year and I've had a couple of tests this season but knowing for sure whether it would happen or not, it was a big relief to know the ride was mine, finally."





Briscoe becomes IndyCar "Comeback Kid" as Hornish Jr's replacement - IRL - Yahoo! Sports