Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
I have so much to write about I’m just going to do it in bullets:
1) Martin Truex Jr was handed his 150 point fine today. That moved him from 14th to 18th in points and, in my opinion, killed any chances he had in making the Chase. With that being said, he still has a chance - I mean look at what Kenseth has done in the past several weeks, but I don’t think DEI has the equipment to get him back like Roush has.
2) Speaking of DEI, apparently Teresa Earnhardt is looking for someone with deep pockets to come on-board at DEI as a minority owner. Wouldn’t it be neat that the only offer she got was from Dale Jr? Could you imagine, Dale Jr driving for Hendrick and being minority owner of DEI? It won’t happen, but it would be cool to see.
3) I don’t expect Truex to re-sign with DEI, so where will he end up? I’d like to see him at RCR, but I don’t think that’ll happen. So where then? Penske is the best choice because rumour has it that Newman is leaving - more on that later - but I don’t think that’ll happen either as I think the newly displaced Casey Mears will end up there instead.
How about this? I’m starting a new rumour here - Martin Truex will be driving for Red Bull next year in either AJ’s ride or in a 3rd car. Just think about it for a second, doesn’t Truex fit the Red Bull image to a ‘T’?
4) If you were watching Trackside this past weekend you would have heard Jimmy Spencer say that Tony Stewart is leaving JGR and has bought controlling interest in CNC/Haas Racing and will be racing there next year along with his new driver Ryan Newman (told you we’d get to him). This same story has been reported by Dave Moody over at his blog as well. According to Dave, Tony’s car will have two sponsors in Old Spice and the freshly Roush dumped Office Depot and Newman’s car will be sponsored by Jack Daniels - yep Clint Bowyer’s sponsor.
I’ll ask Tony about this when I talk with him tomorrow (more on that later). Also, does this mean more ‘armpit marketing’ from Old Spice?
5) RCR’s Clint Bowyer has a car with now sponsor for next year, but wait! Hark, I hear a sponsor coming and they want Clint to race the truck! Yep, UPS is leaving MWR and going to RCR. This is all according to Dave. No word on any possible number changes at RCR, CNC/Haas (make that Stewart/Haas) and MWR.
6) How about this? Yates Racing has remained pretty much sponsor-less this season, but word is that they will be a three car team next year with sponsors for all three teams. This rumour comes way of Jack Roush himself via Dave Moody.
Hmm … is this where Jamie McMurray will end up as Roush cuts down to 4 teams? Roush and Yates already have an affiliation, and this would further solidify their relationship.
7) Tony Stewart will be making an appearance at one of our local Home Depots (store #7008)Wednesday and I have an interview time with him thanks to the Hamilton Specatator which I write a weekly NASCAR column for. I was talking with the PR person in charge of the event this evening and I was reassured that Tony is feeling much better and will be making the appearance as scheduled. Cool.
Finally, those guys at ‘On Pit Row’, Charlie and Steve, had me on their show tonight and I had a blast as always. If you’ve never had a chance to listen to their show you should, they have awesome guests (excluding me of course), it is funny to listen to them cut each other up, and they know their stuff.
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