Posts tagged PenskeRacing at FanHouse

Despite a press conference Friday that left a lot of people with a lot of questions, Ryan Newman is officially hired on at Stewart-Haas Racing -- and a big part of that is just to simply have more "fun".

"The bottom line is that I want to have fun," said Newmanduring the Stewart-Haas press conference at Michigan International Speedway on Friday.

"I'm here to have fun and I know (Stewart) he wants to have fun doing this."

I'd assume that the definition for "fun" carries two mandates: being in contention to win more races and having a nice contract with multiple zeros at the end of the compensation line. Both drivers are known fisherman, so that might be included in the "fun" deal, too.

Leading up to the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, word was that Martin Truex Jr. was going to re-sign with Dale Earnhardt Inc. for 2009, and potentially longer. Truex, though, wasn't happy about the report done by ESPN.com's David Newton:

"It's (expletive). I don't know what the hell (the reporter) is talking about. He doesn't know what he's talking about," Truex said.

It turns out, though, that Newton was ultimately right. Whether or not he was right at the time, though, is still up in the air.

Regardless, Martin Truex Jr. is expected to announce later Friday that he will be staying at DEI in the No. 1 car for at least one more year. In contract terms, Truex actually just accepted the DEI's proposal to pick up the one-year option for '09 that was already in his previous deal.

Truex's move takes away at least a fraction of the rumor game being currently played throughout the Sprint Cup garage area, as he has been rumored for any number of open seats in 2009 including Stewart-Haas Racing, Penske Racing, and Richard Childress Racing.

Ryan Newman must love being sly.

For many of the past race weekends, Penske Racing's departing driver has been a man of few revelations, even as the NASCAR media continually cites sources saying he has a done deal to drive alongside Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009.

The most recent rumor came on behalf of Lee Spencer with FOX Sports:

The worst secret in the NASCAR garage is one step closer to becoming reality.

Ryan Newman has reached a verbal agreement with Stewart-Haas Racing to drive the No. 4 Chevrolet starting next season, sources told FOXSports.com.

Nothing has been signed and nothing is official, but a deal is close and a formal announcement is expected to take place in the next 4-5 weeks.

Among the details pending is a sponsor for Newman. Burger King is a likely candidate for at least partial sponsorship.

Burger King is one of those sponsors that nearly makes too much sense for Newman. Can't you just him in a commercial with the awkward "King" character in the passenger seat at the local Burger King?

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on-location at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's 15th Running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

It's Saturday morning in Indianapolis, and after forgetting my parking tag on the way in this morning, I have finally made my way to the media center here at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With that, let's get started on some news and notes from Friday afternoon at the Brickyard:

Rusty & Ryan Still Don't Like Each Other

Rusty Wallace must not be a fan of Ryan Newman, even after all these years. The two drivers had a lukewarm relationship at best while they were teammates, and Rusty decided to pile on some more bad blood Friday at IMS.

Newman said he left Penske Racing on mutual terms but Rusty says not say fast:

"He didn't leave. I've read many, many stories that said that,'' Wallace said. "Roger Penske called Ryan Newman up to his offices and said 'I don't need your services next year.' Ryan Newman didn't come to him and say 'I'm leaving.'''

Now why Rusty feels its imperative that he rag on Newman is beyond me, and apparently Ryan feels the same way. You can read more about the "He Said, He Said" battle here.

I wonder how happy ESPN (Rusty's employer) is about their driver analyst ripping on a driver that is racing in the same series they will be covering on Sunday? They can't be too pleased.

Roush Doesn't See McMurray Coming Back, Apparently

Jack Roush had some interesting words during a Friday press conference at IMS about the future drivers in his operation, and more exclusively about Jamie McMurray:

Local boy done good, and so local town is gonna recognize.

South Bend, Ind.'s pride and joy -- other than that university with "Touchdown Jesus" -- Ryan Newman got the toast of city officials and the local media on Thursday afternoon as the city officially renamed a portion of Lincoln Way to "Newman Way".

Unfortunately, that stretch of road has a speed limit of 45mph, which Newman joked about raising during the press conference. Boy, that Newman, he's a funny guy.

Couldn't South Bend at least let him get a road with a 55mph speed limit? If not, make the whole thing much more humorous by giving Newman a school zone at, say, 25mph. Now that's funny.

Thanks to Tony Stewart, the puzzle pieces of the 2009 season are starting to match together nicely.

Ryan Newman won't have to worry about Alltel continuing to be the sponsor of the No. 12 Penske Dodge after 2008 because he won't even be with the Penske operation anymore, potentially opening the door for Newman to join Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing, otherwise known as the "Indiana Dream Team".

Newman, who hails from South Bend, Ind., leaves Penske Racing at an interesting time. Though 2008 was he final year of his current contract with the team, most wouldn't have expected Newman to be leaving the only team he's ever driven for in stock car racing. A win at the Daytona 500 in February further emphasized that thought.

But Newman has been frustrated with the performance of the team, both this year and for last few years. Currently, Newman sits 16th in the point standings, and it appears he could be on the outside looking in for the Chase yet again. He hasn't been a participant since 2005.

In 2003, Newman's career looked to be taking off like a rocket. He won eight races of his 13 career wins that season. He followed it up with two more in 2004, one in 2005, and then didn't win again until February at Daytona. In that time, the Penske operation had fallen off from being at the top of the NASCAR game, and it took a toll on a Newman, leading him to where we are today.

Tony Stewart apparently just had to scratch that itch -- you know, that itch that Dale Earnhardt Jr. scratched enough in 2007 to find his way to Hendrick Motorsports.

And now that we know that Tony (or at least we think we know) won't be piloting the No. 20 Toyota in 2009 for Joe Gibbs Racing in favor of owning his own team, we need to look at Stewart the team owner/teammate. In other words, who is going to work best with Stewart as a teammate in 2009?

Let's start with the most-rumored candidate, "Flyin' Ryan" himself:

Ryan Newman - Newman seems to make the most sense for a number of reasons. Newman is a fellow Hoosier like Stewart, has a dirt track and open-wheel background just like Stewart, and he's in the final year of his contract with a struggling Penske. And, oh yeah, dude is fast.

Newman has 43 career poles and 13 wins -- including the 2008 Daytona 500. You put Newman into a fast car, and he can put you in victory lane. He's also got some pretty sweet wrestling moves, too. The only thing he doesn't bring is a sponsor package, though it wouldn't be hard to find one.

Martin Truex Jr. - Truex could be next great defector from the idling ship that is Dale Earnhardt Inc. With one career win coming last summer at Dover, Truex made the Chase for the Championship in 2007 but his chances don't look as good this time around.

Kurt Busch was lucky when it mattered Sunday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The Penske Racing driver scored his first win of his horrible 2008 season by staying out during a late caution as rain approached late in the going in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301. When the rain finally came, Busch had held the top spot for just 10 laps and after a brief red flag period, NASCAR finally called the race after 284 of 301 laps.

The win elevated Busch four spots in the point standings to 18th-place.

Many more of the Top-10 finishers definitely lucked into their positions because of the rain including Michael Waltrip (2nd) and J.J. Yeley (3rd). For those two, it might be the only time in 2008 that they finish in the Top-5.

(Note: The picture on the right is from 2004. Yes, it freaks me out too. Thank you, Getty Images.)

If you remember back to one year ago, Kurt and Kyle Busch weren't exactly the happiest set of brothers in the NASCAR garage.

That's generally what happens -- brothers or not -- when you wreck each other while racing for $1 million. I will give credit where credit is due, of course, and say that Kurt Busch easily had one of the best lines of all of 2007 when he said "I definitely won't be eating any Kellogg's any time soon."

Since then, though, the relationship in the family between the two hasn't been the greatest. For much of 2007, a quote from one or the other came out about how they weren't talking or hadn't discussed things.

In other words, they just didn't want to kiss and make up.

Then Grandma stepped in:

Kyle said the two made amends after their grandmother asked them to work out their differences for the Christmas holiday.

"It was a little edgy to begin with because that was about the first time we'd ever sat down together," Kyle said of Christmas dinner.

"The more it kind of went, the more it kind of got back to normal and friendly and whatever. By the end of the night we were playing games and everything anyway."

Well isn't that just ... precious.

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.