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Hornish Jr. to RPM's #9 to replace Ambrose? The rumored replacement for Marcos Ambrose in the Richard Petty Motorsports #9 Ford ride for next year now looks like it will be Sam Hornish Jr. Speculation is the former Indy Car star and current Joe Gibbs Racing part-time Nationwide Series driver will get another shot at a full-time Sprint Cup ride next year when Ambrose returns to his native Australia.(Motor Racing Network)(10-6-2014)

Earnhardt Jr. comments about his tire issue at Kansas: #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. experienced a tire failure while leading the Hollywood Casino 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway on lap 122, his comments:
Q) WHAT HAPPENED?
Earnhardt Jr.: "I was going into Turn 3 and the surface of the tire unwound all the way across the surface. And I don't know; just the whole surface of the tire unwound like a string. It just came off the tire and it popped off the corner. I felt it coming apart through the corner and the surface of the tire is gone. The whole cap came off. Must have been a recap (laughs). But I've got to hand it to the guys. Man, that was a great race car. We hadn't been running very good the last several weeks. But man, when we came in here with a great attitude and a great fast car; this is the car that we won Pocono with both times. It's a good car. Hopefully we didn't hurt it too bad and we'll just try to go to the next one. This is going to hurt us in the points, obviously, but we've got a lot of racing left and a lot of racing to win. We're running good."
Q) WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
Earnhardt Jr.: "The tread unwound off the tire going into (turn) three all the way through the middle of the corner. I felt the tire unwinding and the surface of the tire was gone by the time I got to the exit of the corner and it blew."
Q) WE WERE TOLD IT WOULD BE ON THE EDGE TODAY DID YOU NOTICE ANY OF THAT?
Earnhardt Jr.: "No, my car was good it was turning. Really wasn't running that hard. Sometimes the tires just unwind. I don't know why they do that. We have had it happen a couple of times this year. It just happens every once in a while. We haven't had any tire wear. We didn't wear the inside edge out down to the cords and pop the tire, the tread just came off." Q) WHAT ABOUT THE CHASE IMPLICATIONS? NOT THE WAY TO START THIS ROUND:
Earnhardt Jr.: "Yeah, the points - it's going to hurt. It is what it is. We just have to go to the next race and try to win."(Team Chevy)(10-5-2014)