In news that surprised virtually no one not having lived under a rock the past few months, Sam Hornish Jr. announced today he was leaving the IRL to run full-time in NASCAR.  Gee.  Maybe he'll actually qualify for a race now.

It's a good thing to have Hornish in NASCAR, as he's totally prepared for it.  The man has zero personality and charisma.  What more could you ask for?  Yes, he can drive... open wheel cars.  Whether or not he can actually be competitive in a stock car remains to be seen, as to date he hasn't exactly drenched himself with glory.  Not to mention Gatorade or whatever in Victory Lane.

As to what Hornish's departure from IRL means... um, one less deadly dull cliché-ridden pre-race interview?  No more fights on pit road between anonymous crew members and his dad?  A thirty-seven percent decrease in the amount of eyebrow hair in IRL?  Pick one.

Ryan Briscoe will fill his seat at Penske.  Let's see here... checking out the stats... two top fives and six top tens in twenty starts, finished less than half of the twenty races he's run.  Hoo boy.  No wonder Helio Castroneves is currently begging the promoters of the next Dancing With The Stars tour to have it run from March twenty-ninth through September seventh of next year.  It'll save him having to throw his hands up and say "teammate?  What teammate?  I have no teammate" every time three-quarters of the field comes looking for him after the race because of something Briscoe did.

By the way, only 140 shopping days until the start of the 2008 IRL season.  That should be enough time for every sportswriter in the land who doesn't know Indy from Mindy of Mork fame to pen their "is Danica the next Anna Kournikova" column.