Hornish to leave Panther at the end of the year.

Just one day after his crushing, ninth career, IRL IndyCar Series victory in Sunday's Belterra Casino Indy 300, double defending IRL Champion Sam Hornish Jr announced that he would be leaving Panther Racing at the end of the current season.

Calling it the toughest decision he has ever had to make, Hornish will leave the Pennzoil sponsored squad after three ultra-successful seasons with the team. During that time, Hornish has amassed nine victories, with four more races left to run this year, and won the IRL title in both 2001 and 2002.

After Sunday's dominant victory at the Kentucky Speedway, the 24 year-old driver moved up to fifth place in the 2003 IRL points chase, just 77 points behind leader Tony Kanaan despite having raced with a greatly underpowered engine for the first two-thirds of the season.

Hornish Jr is expected to make a decision on his future before the end of the month with signs pointing to a potential deal with either a Chevrolet NASCAR team or a Japanese powered IRL IndyCar team.

Hornish has already been linked with a move away from open-wheel racing into the far more lucrative NASCAR world although a tie in with an IRL team who will also let him run selected Busch and Nextel Cup events is also a distinct possibility.

Chip Ganassi and Richard Childress have already been mentioned as potential future employers now that the Dale Earnhardt Incorporated/Pennzoil Winston Cup team is set to dissolve their partnership at the end of the year.