Penske retained their Castroneves - Hornish Jr. pair for the 2007 season. The second year of the renewed Honda partnership was much more promising than the first with the team coming close to defending their Indianapolis 500 victory, as well as their IndyCar Series driver and team titles. However, the team slumped, scoring only two victories due to driver errors and incidents. The team failed to win major IndyCar silverwares for the first time since the 2005 season. On November 9, 2007, Sam Hornish Jr. announced he would depart from IndyCar Series to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving full-time for the 2008 season with Team Penske American Le Mans Series confirming Porsche LMP2 driver Ryan Briscoe as Castroneves's new teammate for 2008 on November 13, 2007.