American auto racing driver Sam Hornish will drive for Richard Petty Motorsports No. 9 in 2015. He will be replacing Marcos Ambrose in the team.
When racing for the tream, he will be riding the No. 9 car and be teammates with Aric Almirola. Almirola made the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup after winning at Daytona in July.
This will be Hornish second ever full-time stint in the Sprint Cup Series. His first was for Team Penske from 2008-2010 until his No. 77 team was disbanded.
After that, Hornish has been driving part time in the series and drove 20 races in 2012 for Penske after A.J. Allmendinger was suspended for a positive drug test.
He said "I've worked four years to get back to this point and I feel like I've come a long way. I've found my voice, really, as far as what you need to have as far as a Cup driver is concerned ... trying to help steer organizations and I feel like when I look at it, the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports, it's kind of like a small ship. It's easier to turn. They've got a lot of things heading in a really good direction. Their association with Roush-Yates, as far as horsepower and Ford Racing and Roush with the chassis."
Hornish has also drove full time for Team Penske in 2012 and 2013 but had no vacancy in 2014.
He said "At the end of 2010, I don't know that if it would have been beneficial for me to have a full-time Cup ride in 2011. Because I had worked so hard to try to keep my head above water and I really wasn't in a good spot as far as confidence goes. I had taken quite a few lumps and had always tryied to work on the things. And I always thought there was light at the end of the tunnel, but sometimes you don't know if that's a train or not."
He adds "And I feel like having 2011, while it was a big hit and only did a few races here and there, it really gave me an opportunity to do a lot of testing which I had never gotten that opportunity up until that point, and also to run some Nationwide races and to have a good competitive team and crew chief to get myself an opportunity to win races and it just was a huge confidence builder."
