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Musings, rumblings and ramblings from Geoffrey Miller after Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Challenge

'Wooooooooo!' to LMS, NASCAR

I'm not sure who makes the final call on the All-Star race format, but Saturday night's version is about as a good as it gets. That 10-lap finale? Adjectives don't describe that, but honorary race director Ric Flair's trademark "Woooooo!" does.

'Woooooo!' Part Deux

The single funniest moment of the night? Joey Logano's Ric Flair imitation after being announced as the fan vote winner. [Watch here at 1:16]

There's a lot of folks in the NASCAR world that said Tony Stewart was straight crazy to leave his championship-winning team of Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2009 season.

Me? I didn't exactly make a prediction to stay on the safe side, mainly because I know how Stewart always produces when the odds are against him.

But for all of those that said Stewart and hired teammate Ryan Newman wouldn't find success, the still-young Stewart-Haas Racing is proving the doubters to be completely wrong.

Twenty-five years later, Hendrick Motorsports is still on top at Martinsville Speedway after driver Jimmie Johnson bumped his way past Denny Hamlin to secure the win in Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500.

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?

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.

I call myself an average eBay shopper, and because of that, I'm putting out a warning.

If you see some great deals on Tony Stewart gear, there's a reason for that: it's not relevant after 2008.

Stewart announced here at Chicagoland Speedway Thursday that he and Haas-CNC Racing will pair up to form Stewart-Haas Racing, an entity that Stewart will drive for in 2009, that will sport two teams, and will continue running Chevrolets.

The partnership, amazingly enough, doesn't appear to have involved any financial commitment on Stewart's part, with Stewart continually referring to the move in numerous tenses of the word "give". When asked directly, he skirted the question.