FanHouse NASCARSillySeason

Less than a year ago -- February to be exact -- rumors were swirling that Bobby Labonte would finish 2008 with Petty Enterprises and move to Richard Childress Racing for 2009.

It made sense at the time because Labonte's sponsor, General Mills, signed on at RCR to sponsor a 4th team at the operation and Labonte had a contract to drive 15 races for RCR in the Nationwide Series. Eventually, that rumor fell apart and Labonte re-signed with Petty for four more years.

Thursday, however, those plans completely changed again when Labonte and Petty agreed to amicably part ways immediately -- leaving the 2000 Sprint Cup Series champion without a ride for the moment in 2009 and continuing a nasty downward spiral of Petty Enterprises.

Petty plans to still run, at a minimum, a single-car team in 2009 but doesn't yet have a driver lined up.

Looking back, I can imagine that if the opportunity was available for Labonte to move to RCR like the rumor said, he's probably kicking himself slightly right now. However, we don't know for sure if such an offer was on the table and you surely can't fault Labonte for his loyalty.

Jamie McMurray is probably one of the happier guys in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this week. Here's why:

1) He finished third at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend and could have very easily won the event.

2) He proposed to his longtime girlfriend Christy Futrell. (FanHouse supposes she said yes)

3) He's getting to team up with his longtime friend and former crew chief from the Chip Ganassi Racing days, Donnie Wingo.

There's no official indication on which aspect he's the happiest about, however. Grin.

Regardless, it's been more than a good week for McMurray, who has had one of the most disappointing performances in his brief career at Roush Fenway Racing that a guy could in that situation. In the past few weeks, McMurray has notched finishes of 5th, 7th and 3rd with one exception of a 38th-place finish at Martinsville thanks to mechanical troubles.

He's been so good, in fact, that ABC's commentators have wondered plenty about why Jack Roush is wanting to move Larry Carter off of the pit box for the No. 26 when it seems that McMurray has finally started to see the light at the powerhouse Ford team.

McMurray, though, isn't questioning that decision and instead is very pleased to know that Wingo will be leading the No. 26 come Daytona in February.

Reed Sorenson's future seat at Gillette-Evernham Motorsports might get a little cold before he takes the reigns of his new Dodge after Patrick Carpentier got the boot from the organization Tuesday afternoon.

Carpenter failed to make last Sunday's race at Talladega, and later had somewhat of a confrontation in plain view of the entire Talladega garage with his crew chief who blamed Patrick -- not the car -- as the reason the No. 10 car wasn't in the race.

Carpentier, who was already scheduled to leave the team at the end of 2009, later posted a response to the incident on his web site:

"I think it's a complete lack of respect," said Carpentier. "I never was shy to take the blame when I thought it was my fault, but here, everybody knows that it's like driving in a straight line."

"I've looked at the timing data and we were already three-tenths below the time we needed to qualify when I went below the line. I went low because I felt we had to try everything. I gave it all I had, but now he blames me? This is totally unacceptable. It's not as if my teammates were on the first row! They both ran slower than me!"

It's hard to deny Carpentier's logic, but at the same time, he and his publicist had to know that it was a risky move by posting the team's dirty laundry for everyone to see -- especially when its against a team that had a gossip-filled firing of Jeremy Mayfield a few years ago that revealed a team owner's relationship with a female driver, among other things.

UPDATE: Rusty Wallace released a statement Wednesday morning denying that he plans to make a return to NASCAR in 2009.

"I love Kenny to death; he's been trying to get me back in a car ever since I retired after 2005. While any rumors like this are certainly flattering, they're untrue. I have a long-term commitment to ABC and ESPN and I really love what I'm doing right now," said Wallace in a statement.

To me, this whole deal seems pretty bizarre, especially given that Rusty's brother put out the rumor. I have a feeling there might be more to this story than what meets the eye, but for now, it appears to be dead in the water.

Original: 1989 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace is "considering" a return to NASCAR's top series in 2009, his brother Kenny Wallace said Tuesday night in an article posted on SPEEDTV.com.

"Six different crew members came up to me and said they'd heard a rumor Rusty was coming back to drive for [Dale Earnhardt Inc]," said Wallace in the article.

"These rumors get started in the Mooresville [N.C.] area because the [NASCAR team] shops are so close to each other and nothing can be kept secret for long. All I can say is that where there's smoke, there's fire. And he is definitely considering stepping back into a race car."

Rusty, who retired in 2005 after 25 seasons in NASCAR with 55 career wins, currently works as an analyst for ESPN and owns two Nationwide Series cars, one of which is driven by his son Steven.

I'm having a tough time not believing what Kenny said in the article for the sheer fact that he is Rusty's brother, and that that would seemingly prevent Wallace for spreading untrue rumors.

Jamie McMurray is gone from Roush Fenway Racing after 2008, ThatsRacin.com reported Sunday.

It's not a huge shock to me to see McMurray headed out the door -- the FanHouse talked about this in April -- thanks to a few factors. The most significant, though, is that McMurray has never been able to be a consistent front runner in the Sprint Cup Series in RFR's race cars.

That being said, what is the real likelihood that McMurray even finds a Sprint Cup ride for 2009?

I'd say there are quite a few factors running against him in that pursuit -- the least of which has been his driving statistics over the past few years. Those stats -- one win at Daytona, 6 Top-5s, and 18 Top-10s since signing with Roush -- don't help much, though.

The Sprint Cup Series is entering a pretty busy "silly season" period that will definitely see some moving and shaking for 2009. Among those candidates eligible for moving to different seats are Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Labonte, Reed Sorenson, and possibly more.

McMurray, if he is indeed out the door at Roush and seeking new employment, is vacating a seat that won't be filled. His sponsor Crown Royal is expected to move in with teammate Greg Biffle and Roush could use the chance to measure his team down to four cars as NASCAR has mandated for 2010.

All those factors aside, though, if you're a car owner are you hiring McMurray?