NASCAR reports that there will be an announcement tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at Lowe’s Motor Speedway that the U.S. Army will be the primary sponsor for Ryan Newman’s #39 Chevy car with the newly formed Stewart-Haas racing next season.

Tony Stewart’s #14 car has already been announced to have Office Depot and Old Spice as alternating sponsor’s so it looks like this race team is coming along almost perfectly.

NASCAR.com quotes Stewart:

“I’m really excited about having the opportunity to be hands-on and be a part of getting things going for next year and trying to get the key people hired right now and dealing with all the people at the shop that I haven’t had a chance to work with yet,” he said Monday on a conference call with reporters. “It’s an exciting time for me. It’s the busiest I’ve ever been in my life right now.”

We’ve got him Stewart fans!

Friday at Michigan International Speedway Ryan Newman will make it official that he will be joining Stewart-Haas racing next 2009 season.

The rumors had been running for months that Newman was the man to join the newly formed race team, but there had been no official announcements…at least not until this Friday morning at 10:30 AM.

NASCAR.com reports:

“Tony’s a great competitor in a great many ways, because he’s tough, but he’s also respectful,” Newman said prior to the July 12 race at Chicagoland. “He’s been a good friend on and off the racetrack, specifically off. He’s done a lot to help me and guide me. He’s an Indiana boy, so I have a different respect for him because of that. But in general, he’s just a hard-nosed racer, and I’ve always appreciated him for that. Whether we argue on the racetrack or not, we’re two hard-nosed racers.”

It will obviously not be all roses when the 2009 season approaches for Newman. He will be driving the #4 car which is out of the top 35 in owners points.

Stewart automatically gets into the races with his #14 car because he is a past series champ.

Let’s try to sift through the mess that is contract extensions, driver swaps and musical cars….

 

Confirmed Driver Status’

 

Greg Biffle¹ has confirmed he has re-signed a 3 year contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing. “Certainly I’m very excited to announce that we’ve done a multiyear extension with Roush Fenway,” said Biffle. “3M has stepped up, they had a multiyear deal to start with, but they came and re-upped, so to speak, recommitted to being on the car for those races. It was a long process, I weighed, certainly, all of my options out and it felt like the 16 car is where I really wanted to spend my next three years driving. A lot of things went into making a decision on where I was going to be. One was Ford’s commitment to the racing program and supporting us technologically … ” his teammate, Carl Edwards has re-signed until 2011.

Elliot Sadler has signed with Gillette-Evernham Motorsports until 2010.

 

Petty Enterprises has signed Bobby Labonte through 2012.

 

Casey Mears announced and confirmed he will leave Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the 2008 season.

 

Aric Almirola will drive the No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. full-time next season.

 

“I’ve signed up with R.C.R. [Richard Childress Racing] for three more years,” Clint Bowyer said Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway. “You’ve got to live up to what you did last time, and there is a little bit more pressure,” he said. “But it is what it is.”

 

On that same note, Richard Childress Racing has added a fourth Sprint Cup car to the team, but it is yet unconfirmed who will drive the machine.

 

 

Unconfirmed Driver Status’

 

Reed Sorenson driver for Chip Ganassi Racing which will leave the #41 car open for a driver. Sorenson is mulling a contract extension, but nothing is currently set in stone, “I expect everything will be worked out in the next week or two,” he says. Sorenson is not the only suffering team as Juan Pablo Montoya and Sorenson have already changed crew chiefs this season, the third driver Dario Franchitti has also had his share of trials and tribulations. “I’m not happy running where we’ve been at and, hopefully, everybody else here isn’t either. As a driver I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished a lot of what I want to do. I want to win races and contend for championships.” Sorensen says. “I still love racing. I feel honored to be here and lucky to do this as a living. Most of the people in this garage are huge competitors and when you’re not challenging for a good finish, it definitely wears on you. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot, but I feel now it’s time we accomplished some things at this level.”

 

Martin Truex Jr. could possibly leave DEI to replace Ryan Newman at Penske racing. Ryan Newman could go to the Haas CNC team that Tony Stewart will possibly run in which Newman could be a co-owner and driver.

 

It is rumored that Mark Martin is leaving DEI driving for HMS for Casey Mears’ former #5 car so Aric Armoriola can race the #8 car full-time. The Mark Martin move makes sense to some fans due to his experience with driving some NNS races for the team.

 

In the same turn, there was also the rumored route that Mark Martin will leave DEI and drive for HMS (Casey Mears former #5 car) part-time with Brad Keselowski so they can slowly wean Keselowski in the Sprint Cup. Some find it hard to grasp Martin driving full-time because he enjoys doing part time.

 

Another rumored possibility is that Casey Mears is going to Richard Childress Racing to fill in the fourth car that was reported to be made for Sprint Cup racing. Some find it hard to see Mears fitting in with Burton and Harvick though. Other opening for Mears could include DEI where Truex Jr. left off or Ganassi where Sorenson left off. His competition for any of these possibilities could come from Scott Wimmer, David Stremme or Reed Sorenson. Confused yet?

 

 

Most of the rumored speculations are revolved around Tony Stewart² ending his contract with JGR early, (Chevrolet wants to help buy Tony out of his contract with JGR) to join Haas CNC racing with 50% ownership. Mind you, he is looking for ownership somewhere so the possibility is not out of the realm. The other unconfirmed possibility is Tony Stewart ending his contract one year early to go to Hendrick Motorsports. The big question is though, would NASCAR really allow the powerhouse that is Gordon, Johnson and Earnhardt Jr. becomes an even bigger powerhouse with Stewart in the mix? It would become a monopoly, like Microsoft is to the technical world.

 

If Tony leaves JGR, the next rumored possibility is that young racing phenomenon, Joey Logano will take his place and will take his sponsor (Home Depot) to which Home Depot will be offered a cheaper deal with Logano then what they had with Stewart.

 

There’s no denying that Stewart is looking for a position where he is owning a race team/cars. Stewart has not confirmed any speculations. I do predict that an announcement in regards to Tony’s decision will come sooner than later with the situation of Casey Mears leaving HMS and the speculations and rumors flying rapid more than ever around what Tony will do.

 

It is a tossup as to what will really happen, It will unquestionably be fascinating to see how the soap opera part of NASCAR plays out. Hopefully the soap opera realm of this NASCAR story will not trickle over and effect the performance and driving statistics of these driver’s playing the “musical cars” game.

1. Photo from AP, Modified by Kitten [↩]
2. Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR, Modified by Kitten [↩]

So I had always been curious as to what “Power Rankings” were. The rankings were always different than the point’s standings and I always read about it on news articles and wondered how they ranked the drivers. With a little heart-filled research, I found out that it was basically a ranking by a bunch of sports guru’s on Yahoo! Sports.

Here are the Richmond Power Rankings from Yahoo! Sports:

1: Kyle Busch
Rowdy – No. 1 in the points, No. 43 in your hearts.

2: Denny Hamlin
Prediction of the week: We will not see a more dominating performance than the show Hamlin put on at Richmond.

3: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The frustration has clearly set in. Don’t for a second think this winless streak isn’t in Junior’s head.

4: Jeff Burton
Every week he starts in the back, and every week he ends up near the front.

5: Carl Edwards
So he just re-upped with Roush, but it’s only for three years, meaning the clock is ticking. Jack, you better get this boy a championship, soon.

6: Tony Stewart
Just wait. When June hits and weather heats up, Smoke will rise and it will be 1, 2, 3, for Joe Gibbs Racing.

7: Clint Bowyer
A win is a win. Regardless, Bowyer proved he’s a stud on the short tracks.

8: Jimmie Johnson
Something just doesn’t feel right with the 48 team. You can call them a lot of thing, but until now inconsistent wasn’t one of them.

9: Kevin Harvick
Finally broke through with his first top 10 in over a month.

10: Jeff Gordon
Great comeback, but you can’t win a championship with a bunch of great comebacks.

11: Ryan Newman
The real test for Newman is whether or not he can put together three straight top 10s, something he hasn’t done yet this season and did only once last year.

12: Juan Pablo Montoya
We’re sticking with you, Juan, because if you hadn’t gotten caught in the Richmond ‘Big One,’ you would have been right there.

Lucky Dog: Travis Kvapil
Sponsorless at the start of the season, he’s now ahead of Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth in the standings.

DNF: Michael Waltrip
Didn’t you love how DW blamed the incident with Casey Mears on his brother’s bumper getting stuck on Mears’, when in reality Waltrip’s foot being glued to the accelerator caused the issue.
(more…

How excited am I that Ryan Newman won the Daytona 500? VERY! It’s about time, and my bad twin says better it be Newman than Kurt Busch.

I did not even realize that Daytona had so much history until I started reading up on it and remembering a few facts that I had put in the back of my mind because after all, I am still absorbing all this NASCAR history.

• First off, this year is the 50th Anniversary of the Daytona 500 running for “The Great American Race” and is always the first race of the NASCAR season.
• NASCAR Daytona 500 TV ratings are the highest of any motor sport.
• On the last turn of the final lap of the 2001 running of the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt was killed in a crash.
• Tony Stewart has never won the Daytona 500
• Richard Petty has won the most Daytona 500 runnings with a total of 7 and Cale Yarbarough winning 4.

*Photo from wsbt.com, facts from wikipedia.com