Nov. 11 newsstand: Sam out, Briscoe in

I apologize for the late posting, as things have been more than a little bit crazy with my jobs in the last few weeks, so posting has been a bit sporadic.

Anyway, the worst-kept secret in motorsports is now official: Sam Hornish Jr. is now a full-time NASCAR driver.

Sam then made the field for today's race at Phoenix, although he's been running in the back of the pack.

ESPN.com's Terry Blount says Sam knows it's a big jump.
Says Sam: "This could be the biggest mistake I ever made or the best thing I ever did. I've thought about this every minute of every day for the last year and a half."

Judging by results so far, I'm betting the former. He could've been the next Rick Mears, but has set out to become the next Kyle Petty instead.

The St. Pete Times says Sam is happy to make the jump.
Says Tim Cinric: "There's a point in time where you just have to make a decision. We don't usually look back. We knew throughout this is where we wanted to end up."

Other stories: Detroit Free Press, Indianapolis Star, Florida Today, NASCAR.com.

And some funny analysis from one of our faves, Diecast Dude from Restrictor Plate THIS!

Sam out, Briscoe in
The aforementioned Terry Blount column, St. Pete Times story and Curt Cavin's blog confirm that Ryan Briscoe will be in the No. 6 car next year, as does this story from GrandPrix.com. An announcement is coming Tuesday.

Says Tim Cindric: "If you look at the ones that are out there, there aren't too many names that are free and clear right now to go racing next year. Dario might have been one of them, but he decided (NASCAR) is what he wanted to do. If Ryan fills the role there, he's got all the potential. But we still need the results."

Some analysis
NASCAR.com explains some of the reasons why Sam, Dario & the F1 refugees face a difficult transition to driving the taxicabs.
Says Kurt Busch of Sam: "He's done incredible things and so we hope he's able to bring that success over to the stock car level, but this stock car thing is pretty tough. I don't think it should be taken for granted that this is easy to do even though we are having an onslaught of open-wheel drivers heading our way."

Meanwhile, Fox Sports' Lee Spencer says the "good ole' boys" are gone, and rehashes Jeff Gordon's tired old story (one that has been gleefully rehashed by the NASCAR media at every opportunity in the last decade) about everybody in the OW paddock wanting a ride-buyer, but she now notes that same phenomenon is happening in NASCAR.

On the "new teams" front
One new driver/sponsor combo that apparently will not be coming is CDW with Justin Wilson. Apparently, CDW had talks with the IRL, but they turned south. Methinks the "something" that happened might have been talking with AGR, but when the Super Aguri money showed up, that seat got filled by Hideki Mutoh. CDW is one of a very few good sponsors Champ Car has left.

A good read
Tony Kanaan, Ed Carpenter and Alex Lloyd talk about being new fathers on IndyCar.com.

An old read
David Phillips spins an old tune, calling for a merger instead of waiting for the Paul Newman/Gerry Forsythe Spite Series to just wither up and die. Not surprisingly, all of the voices calling for merger are generally CC-wonks, and all of those voices tend to be expecting that the terms of the merger will result in Champ Car plus the Indy 500, when the only possible reality is that any "merged" version of OW racing will look a lot more like the current IRL than the train wreck that is the other series.

Front office changes
IMS Productions has a new leader, Indy radio exec Charlie Morgan.

And finally ...
Your Firestone Indy 500 tires now can have some Indy 500-branded wheels to go with them.