CUP: Is This The Year For Penske?

Sprint Cup

CUP: Is This The Year For Penske?

Brad Keselowski should inject some energy into Penske Racing...

Tom Jensen | Posted January 17, 2010 Concord, NC

Brad Keselowski is off to a rough start in his first full season with Penske Racing. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The 2010 season is shaping up as a huge one for Roger Penske’s NASCAR Sprint Cup operation, which is still seeking its first championship, some 38 years after Dave Marcis first ran a red, white and blue AMC Matador under the Penske banner.

Last season, Kurt Busch finished fourth in points in a Penske Dodge Charger, the best result of any driver other than the Hendrick Motorsports trio of Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.

For 2010, much is new at Penske.

Busch has a new crew chief, Steve Addington, who led Kyle Busch to 12 victories at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008-09.

Brad Keselowski replaces David Stremme in the No. 12 Penske entry, with a new crew chief of his own, Jay Guy, who moves over from Furniture Row Racing.

And Sam Hornish Jr. is entering his third season of Sprint Cup racing, which historically seems to be the time that former open-wheel drivers finally catch on to the nuances of wheeling a stock car for 500 miles at a time.

“Sam has to get it done this year,” Penske said Saturday night at Concord, N.C., where he was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame, along with Jack Roush, Rusty Wallace and Robert Yates.

Penske said he was optimistic about Hornish’s potential. “If you look at the statistics, Sam had a better second year than Juan Pablo Montoya,” said Penske. “He had the same number of top fives (as Montoya), more top-10 finishes, he won the All-Star race preliminary.”

For his part, Hornish said he thinks he’ll have a much better year in 2010, just as he improved quite a bit in his sophomore season. “I have a lot better understanding of what the cars and everything need to do, and when it comes down to it, you just really want to go out there and get the season started because I've learned so many things whether it's running the superspeedways and the draft and the patience that that requires and saving your equipment just so you can run hard at the end or going to Martinsville,” said Hornish.

Page 1 of 2

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

JENSEN: The Crew Chief’s Advantage
The Sprint All-Star Race was an interesting affair ...
CUP: New Hall Of Fame Class To Be Announced
The late Curtis Turner is among the nominees to the NASCAR Hall of…
CUP: All-Star Power Rankings
Jimmie Johnson remains atop the FOXSports.com/SPEED.com Power Rankings...…