FanHouse DavidStremme

Penske Racing made a solid choice Wednesday by selecting, officially, David Stremme to drive the No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge in 2009.

From the team's press release:

"We're pleased to have David join Penske Racing as the driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge," said Roger Penske. "His past accomplishments and current experience as our NASCAR test driver, as well as his character and desire for success, make him a good fit into our culture."

And I certainly couldn't agree more.

Penske could have easily gone with one of the two trends in the NASCAR garage of recent years by hiring in either 1) a young guy with limited experience or 2) an open-wheel driver. Of course, the latter seems to not be working out so well.

But by hiring Stremme, they are putting a driver behind the steering wheel that not only has NASCAR experience (he drove for Chip Ganassi Racing before getting canned after 2007), but also has plenty of experience behind the wheel of a Penske Racing car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said earlier this week that he's been a little too hard on his JR Motorsports driver Brad Keselowski.

After Saturday night, he's going to be pretty happy with his young driver after Keselowski won the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. It was Keselowski's first career win in the Nationwide Series.

Towards the end, the race was a lesson in fuel mileage as the leaders stretched their fuel tanks to the limit. Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann, and David Stremme all raced towards the front at the end as some late cautions allowed them to conserve fuel.

On the last restart, David Reutimann led until Clint Bowyer tapped his rear bumper to take the lead. Keselowski also got under Reutimann and stayed glued to Bowyer's rear bumper. He finally got under Bowyer with just a few laps to go and set sail for the finish line.

Bowyer and Stremme got together coming off turn four coming to the finish line, shooting Bowyer up the track. He wasn't real happy with Stremme after the event.

But for Keselowski, I'd say winning the traditional guitar trophy was much less important than the pressure he may have relieved from his owner Dale Jr.

Dario Franchitti won't get to join the mayhem that is scheduled to start Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway when the green flag drops.

The Scottish IndyCar star turned NASCAR driver fractured his ankle during Saturday's Nationwide race.

Franchitti was injured early in the event when Larry Gunselman plowed into the side of his No. 40 after Franchitti blew a tire in turn 3.

David Stremme, the driver who was canned by Chip Ganassi from the ride Franchitti now holds at the end of 2007, is expected to make the start in place of the injured Indianapolis 500 champion for the Sprint Cup Series' Aaron's 499.

Stremme has already had a very decent weekend at Talladega after finishing second to Tony Stewart during the Nationwide Aaron's 312 driving for Rusty Wallace Inc.

Subbing in Stremme won't make a difference in the team's starting position because Franchitti was scheduled to roll off dead last in 43rd from the grid anyways.

It's known right now when Franchitti will be back in the drivers seat, especially given that he isn't competing for anything driver points-wise. Instead, a primary goal of the team right now is to keep moving up in the Top-35 standings to keep the No. 40 in each event.

Knowing that, Franchitti might be able to take at least next week's race at Richmond off without having to worry about qualifying the car or starting the race and could potentially do so at Darlington the week after as the Nationwide Series races side-by-side with the Sprint Cup for those weeks.

It seems that former-Indy 500 champion Sam Hornish Jr. might find his way back to the brickyard in May, despite his new career as a driver of the No. 77 Penske Racing Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series.

According to this report from the Sporting News, David Stremme is expected to sign on with Penske Racing as a test driver for the organization this week, leave a door open for Hornish to sneak back to the Indianapolis 500 in May if both he and team owner Roger Penske decide on it.

Penske's entry blank for the Indy 500 reportedly lists Helio Castroneves in the No. 3 car and Ryan Briscoe in the No. 6, but there's a big "TBA" beside the No. 77. It's all speculation at this point, but if Hornish should decide he'd rather run up front in the reunified IndyCar Series (he's a three-time IndyCar champion) than fight to stay on the lead lap in a stock car, Penske would have a test driver -- Stremme -- ready to fill the void.

I really should point out in this situation the use of the word "speculation". There's really nothing in this that states that this is a done deal.

Sam's definitely had some struggles this season in the Sprint Cup Series, and going off to race at Indy certainly wouldn't help that too much, but then again, Hornish will undoubtedly have a much better chance to win again there than he would at Charlotte in May.

The Essentials
Coverage: ESPN on ABC @ 3:00pm/ET
Green Flag: 3:45pm/ET
Distance: 312 laps/312 miles/500 kilometers
Other: Follow it on ESPN360 if available
Venue: Phoenix Int'l Raceway, sold out

Keep These in Mind...
1) Chasing Dreams - The second-to-last round of the Jeff and Jimmie Show: 2007 gets underway with the green flag. It's simple, Jeff Gordon has to overcome a 30-point margin in the next two races to win his fifth Nextel Cup title. Johnson has to beat him to claim his second.

Johnson averages a finish of one spot higher than Gordon at Phoenix, but Gordon was the last to win at the track in April.

2) Three-peat? Kyle Busch could become the first driver in NASCAR history to win in all three divisions on the same weekend. Busch took the victory in Friday night's Craftsman Truck Series race and followed that up with a Busch Series win Saturday night at PIR.

He starts 38th Sunday at Phoenix in the Nextel Cup race.

3) A Flavor of Indy in the Desert - For just the third time in history (thanks, Jayski!), three former winners of the Indianapolis 500 are in Sunday's race. Sam Hornish Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jacques Villeneuve all made the field.

Add in former open wheel drivers Patrick Carpentier, Casey Mears, Robby Gordon, and Tony Stewart and you see very quickly how quickly NASCAR has become the all-around proving ground for drivers.

4) Truex Strong in Practice - Martin Truex Jr. starts second at Phoenix but had the car to beat in Happy Hour practice yesterday. He ran the fastest lap of the session, followed by Kasey Kahne, Casey Mears, David Stremme and Jeff Gordon.

Chase point leader Jimmie Johnson was seventh on the time sheet.

Goodbye IndyCar ... Hello NASCAR.

You don't test and run an ARCA race unless you're seriously thinking about crossing over into stock cars.

Still no word one way or another from IRL Champion Dario Franchitti, but Chip Ganassi is getting him some track time this fall in preparation for Daytona in February.

"There's an open test [at Talladega] on Sept. 27th so we'll run that and then come back for the race."

Robin Miller suggests that CGR will announce the signing of Franchitti to a five-year deal to replace David Stremme in the #40 [Canadian Club?] Dodge as early as this week.

Previously in the Fanhouse
Robin Hood Strikes the IRL
IndyCar Champ to NASCAR Chump?
NASCAR Gains IRL Driver and Celebrity WAG

Travis Kvapil will return to the Cup series (yea!) replacing the retiring Ricky Rudd in the #88 Chevy in 2008--or sooner. Owner Robert Yates, 64, is also retiring and will turn the reigns of the renamed Yates Racing over to son Doug at the end of this season. The Roush Yates engine partnership will continue and Doug shall strive to grow Yates into a pre-eminent team like Roush Fenway.

Stremme Latest Free Agent
Car owner Chip Ganassi doesn't really want to let David Stremme go, but since losing the Coors sponsorship he has nothing to offer the driver for next season so he has not yet picked up his option. Career stats: 2 top 10s, 8 laps led. Ouch. But ... even with the Yates and DEI opening already filled, silly season is still going strong. There'll be somebody out there looking for a little experience.

I wonder ... if I were an owner, who would look more appealing ... Stremme? or Mayfield? Eh. I'd like more choices, but ... I'm going to have to go with Mayfield, baggage and all. A mere two seasons ago, he was contending for the championship. He hasn't forgotten how to drive. But first we'd have to have a come to Jesus meeting. Then again, Stremme is probably more marketable, so ... let's make that an undecided, dependent upon sponsors.

Scott Riggs has next. David Reutimann on deck.

Parlez-vous français?
In French, it's better concealed how bad it is. In English, it's painfully obvious.

Go Fish
Big Fish Games has launched a Roush Fenway Racing-branded gaming site for RoushFenway.com. Uh ... ok?

The air is still thick between Kasey Kahne and David Stremme since the Richmond incident that led Kahne to throw out that Stremme "fat and out of shape" and Stremme to lob back with "he has his own mental problems."

Both Dodge drivers showed up to tape a commercial Wednesday and reportedly didn't speak to each other during the entire eight-hour shoot.

Kahne:

"Yeah, that was a little awkward. We're trying to get some sponsors and some big deals going on right now, and I don't want to screw that up by getting in a fist fight or anything like that with David Stremme."

And here I thought Kahne was a lover, not a fighter.

Stremme:

"If he wants to act like a high school kid, then he can. We obviously have different opinions about what happened on the race track, and I think I'm in the right because there's a lot more people supporting my side of it.

"I think he has problems with a lot of people. I don't know. I am here to race and not worry about his problems."

Kahne:

"I've always had a hard time racing with him. I don't know why. When I'm around his car we just have problems. Racing with David hasn't ever worked for me."

Sounds personal to me.

Just put these two in the ring and be done with it. My money's on Stremme.

A few weeks ago, you could find each of these drivers in the Top 10 in NASCAR Nextel Cup Standings. For two of them, that is no more, and for one, two more weeks of horrendous finishes would make the three 3 for 3. Here's how it happened -- and cue the Tom Petty.

Jeff Burton
Following his win four races ago at Texas, Burton sat just 8 points behind point leader Jeff Gordon and looking poised to continue his surge to the top. The next week at Phoenix, Burton's team never got a good handle on his Impala, but managed a 13th-place finish. At Talladega, a crash took Burton out of the race after qualifying 42nd and then Sunday at Richmond, the team blew a motor.

Result: Burton now sits 5th in points, 339 points behind Gordon.

Kahne: Stremme Is Fat and Out of Shape

Kasey Kahne slides up the track and gets into David Stremme ... and then blames the contact on Stremme being being worn out late in the race 'cause he's fat and out of shape? Ouch.

Is it just me, or is Kahne a little out of touch with reality?

"We got to battling with Stremme and those guys, and my car was better. Everywhere I went, Stremme went. I was just confused on where he was going. He was going bottoms up, bottoms up. He was going all over the place. All the leaders were trying to pass him. I was a fast lapped car, and I was trying to pass him and he just got in the way like every weekend."

Everywhere he went, Stremme went? Stremme was clearly already there when Kahne clipped him. If his car was better, why wasn't he in front of Stremme?

I've got to side with Stremme on this one:

"He was a lap down and I easily passed him. He ran me out. That's all there is. He beat on me. He's having a bad year, but he doesn't need to take it out on everybody else."

At :50 to go:
I don't seem to know what all went down with them during the whole race or in previous races, but that particular incident looks all Kahne and spotter to me.

Besides that, Stremme's never looked better than he has this season. If that's "fat and out of shape," he wears it well.