Still muddy though was the report that Kevin Harvick had asked for his release from RCR thanks to the driver foregoing comment so far and his spokesman issuing a "no comment" about the situation.
Tony Stewart seems to have started something out in the desert.
The two-time Sprint Cup champion helped auction off one of his No. 20 Chevrolets from Joe Gibbs Racing a year ago at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., and enlisted $300,000 for the Darrell Gwynn Foundation. This year, Stewart isn't back, but plenty of others in the NASCAR world are.
The biggest draw so far was auctioned off Saturday night when Jeff Gordon's 2006 No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo fetched a mere $500,000 with the help of car owner Rick Hendrick standing on the auction block.
Yes, race fans, love him, hate him, or feel nothing toward him -- NASCAR's winner of now three consecutive championships has officially joined the list of the most elite drivers to ever compete in the 60-year-old sport.
Chip Ganassi has found a way to make his team not as pathetic as before and Dale Earnhardt Inc. has found a way to keep grasping at being a relevant Sprint Cup Series team.
That method? Join the two programs together to create strange bedfellows, cut costs and hope that a math equation of subpar plus subpar finally equals something good.
Yep, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates will be teaming up to make a four-car team in 2009.
Two of motorsports' biggest names – Earnhardt and Ganassi – will launch a four-car team beginning in 2009 through the combination of the motorsports operations of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI) and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Inc. (CGRFS). NASCAR stars Martin Truex Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya will drive the Nos. 1 and 42 respectively and future star Aric Almirola will be behind the wheel of the No. 8. The driver of the No. 41 will be named in the near future.
For those of you keeping track at home, this combination of forces currently includes 4 cars, 3 drivers and 2.5 sponsorships. Let's hope that changes before 2009.
Additionally, the overriding rumor is that Chevrolet will be the manufacturer for the organization, mainly because it's very likely Dale Earnhardt would rise from his grave to haunt anything bearing his name that doesn't bear a bow tie. Dodge, Ganassi's current partner, is apparently being shoved out.
If you've followed NASCAR at all, you know that Texas Motor Speedway has been nothing short of a story in frustration for Jeff Gordon.
In the inaugural race at the track, Gordon was out front when Ernie Irvan bounced off a slower lapped car on the frontstretch and took him out. He's cut a tire and pounded the turn four wall hard enough to leave him briefly stunned inside the cockpit. And two years ago, he was leading late in the race until he brushed the wall off turn four and fell back.
Then, of course, no one can forget what happened to the No. 24 team just this past April, as he had what could easily be described as the worst race of his career. Simply, Gordon's car was uncontrollable and he evantually lost control and crashed early in the event.
Obviously, Texas has not been Jeff Gordon's friend, so seeing the four-time champion on the pole for Sunday's Dickies 500 (didja hear we're live bloggin' it?) at the Fort Worth track is certainly somewhat of a surprise given the season that Gordon has had.
Hendrick Motorsports is considering a plan that would put Mark Martin in the No. 5 car he'll take over in 2009 for the final race of this season at Homestead [-Miami] Speedway.
A contingency to the plan is getting Casey Mears, the current driver of the No. 5, into the fourth car at Richard Childress Racing that he will drive next season.
But in order to do that Mears would have to drive the No. 33, not the No. 07 that he is slated for because Clint Bowyer is driving that car in the Chase. Team owner Richard Childress said he is willing to put Mears in the No. 33 unsponsored if necessary.
"He won't go without a ride," Childress said.
Why wait until the last race at Homestead, you might ask? Well according to Newton, Martin is scheduled to drive in his current Dale Earnhardt Inc. part-time gig for the season's third and second to last races in Texas and Phoenix.
I'm not real sure, though, that making such a switch would truly benefit Martin or Mears (if ends up racing for RCR at Homestead).
FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is at the track in Concord, N.C. for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 in full fan mode. He's hoping to avoid Kevin Harvick's motor coach driver from his location in the Ford Grandstand, Section I.
The casual NASCAR fan got a treat Thursday morning if they were tuning in to yet another edition of NBC's Today Show as Jeff Gordon showed up at the Rockefeller Center studio in New York City with what will be his 2009 No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet.
Changing permanently for the first time since 2001, the main differences you notice are how the blue on the rear of the car was replaced by the black, and how the flames changed slightly.
However, because it's pretty early, I'll let the press release do the talking for a moment:
Jeff Gordon is having such a disappointing 2008 Sprint Cup series season that he made the rounds Tuesday on Washington D.C.'s Capitol Hill looking for a little bit of help from the nation's politicians.
Grin.
Joking aside, the Hendrick Motorsports driver really was in Washington D.C. Tuesday in support of an organization that is far more important than point standings or top-five finishes -- the National Marrow Donor Program. Gordon made the rounds on the organization's behalf the drum up support behind several issues that the group is looking to improve.
Gordon met with key lawmakers, including the House of Representatives North Carolina delegation, to urge their continued support of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).
The NMDP, a nonprofit organization, serves a vital role in the U.S. health care system by facilitating unrelated marrow and cord blood transplants to treat patients with more than 70 diseases including leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell anemia.
"I have watched some very good friends battle leukemia who were not able to find a match. Their struggle has made me more passionate about and committed to increasing awareness about public cord blood banking and the work of the NMDP," said Gordon.
Now I won't claim to be an expert the subject Gordon was advocating for, but I will say it definitely falls into the "'Atta Boy!" category for good deeds.
The NASCAR season truly kicks in Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup begins. From now through Friday, FanHouse will preview each of the 12-drivers and evaluate their championship chances.
The story that will keep us talking until next weekend's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- well, at least not the Jeremy Mayfield one -- took a new turn Wednesday.
Tony Stewart
Chip Ganassi
If you've followed NASCAR at all, you know that 
ESPN.com's David Newton is reporting the driver who is replacing 
Jeff Gordon
