27, but a veteran and three-times champion

The long off-season is just about over for the IndyCar Series and 2006 champion, Sam Hornish, Jr, is getting anxious to go open wheel racing. After clinching his third series crown in early September, Hornish had to wait until February to even test his Penske Racing IndyCar Series machine, which he will race for the first time in 2007 on Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“It's been five months,” said Hornish, who spent part of his time off running three races in the NASCAR Busch Series with a best of 15th in the most recent race at Atlanta. “Basically from the (last) time that I ran the IndyCar until the next time that I did was five months… For the first day I was a little uncomfortable with it - actually felt a little bit claustrophobic in the car because there's not a whole lot of room in there.”

When Hornish was finally able to do some oval testing in late February at Homestead, he quickly moved toward the top of the speed chart.

"I got back out there the second day and everything felt back to normal and we were second quickest for the day. We're not quite where we want to be as far as speed right now, but as far as getting the comfort level back, it came back pretty quickly (and) definitely looking forward to getting out there and seeing if we can repeat as champions again.”

Notching back to back titles will not be easy, but Hornish did accomplish the feat in 2001 and 2002.

The main competition for Hornish's fourth IndyCar Series title will again come in the form of the 'red cars' of Penske Racing team-mate Helio Castroneves and Ganassi Racing's fast duo of Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon. All sporting at least some red paint this quartet was nearly unstoppable, particularly of the bigger tracks, in 2006.

“You're going to look at the Target (Ganassi) cars, you're going to look at the AGR cars, and there's going to be guys that surprise you from week to week,” said Hornish. “Those are the guys that I would say as far as the championship running, and as far as saying right now a possible Indy 500 winner, I think it would come out of those guys.

“Then I've always got my team-mate, which is probably the stiffest competition I'm ever going to face. Mr. Castroneves has worked really hard in the off-season and continues to work hard. He's looking for a championship, looking to come back to win at Indy again, and he's very tough. He races very hard but fair, as well. We've got a great relationship as far as that goes, and hopefully we'll make each other better in order to keep trying to beat the competition.”

With Hornish even mentioning the Andretti Green Racing cars it becomes apparent that the 2007 season will be competitive, though Hornish's tie with Wheldon in 2006 shows last year was no cake walk.

“I think definitely the 2006 season, even though it didn't look that way as far as the amount of cars that won, it was probably one of the most competitive seasons of the IndyCar Series I've ever seen,” said Hornish. “I think it looks pretty good, and hopefully there will be some more competition out there. I think that there's definitely room for it.”

While Hornish's three IndyCar Series titles are two more than anyone else, the driver from Defiance, Ohio has quietly amassed 99 career IndyCar Series starts, second only to Scott Sharp.

“It must mean I'm getting older. But at 27, really it's kind of hard to look at myself as a seasoned veteran,” said Hornish. “It's a pretty neat milestone. Hopefully we'll be able to cap it off with a win. But to sit back and to think that it's been 100 races, it's pretty hard to believe, especially my first year when I only ran eight races (for PDM Racing). It seems like I've been here forever in my opinion, but I know that's really not that long in the grand scheme of things.”

ORS / CAPSIS International