Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

Now that Mark Martin and Tony Stewart have made their plans for next year public the driver dominoes are starting to fall a little faster.

Ryan Newman, the driver of the Penske South Racing #12 machine, has officially announced his free agency in the NASCAR driver market.

It has been greatly speculated that Newman will be the second driver, and running mate to Tony Stewart, at the newly formed Stewart/Hass Racing next year.

Newman brings an uncanny ability to run fast during qualifying, thus earning him the nickname of ‘Rocketman’ and if he signs with Stewart/Haas Racing he’ll need that because as of right now the existing cars of that team are sitting out of the top 35 and must make each race on speed.

Newman is also very marketable and can bring with him several potential sponsors as well as suitable employees.

Let’s face it, Newman would be stupid not to consider the possibility of driving at Stewart/Haas next year and you just might find him there too, but consider this for a minute: why wouldn’t Newman drive for Richard Childress Racing in their newly formed and already sponsored number 33 car? Newman is the perfect face for sponsor General Mills.

We’ll just have to wait and see, but I expect most of this ‘Silly Season’ stuff to be over within the next few weeks.

Photo Credit: Getty Images for NASCAR

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Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

Kyle Busch won again this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Like him, or not, he is tearing up the NASCAR circuit this year and has put himself solidly as the front runner for the Championship this year.

Kyle has now amassed 70 bonus points that will be awarded at the start of The Chase. That is a lot of points to have headed into the 10 race shoot-out to determine the Sprint Cup Champion.

In fact, Kyle now has a 262 point lead over 2nd place Dale Jr in the overall standings. He can take off the next race and still have the point lead even if Dale Jr won the race and got the most laps lead point bonus.

At this level of competition and in this day and age, that is a pretty good feat.

Now, I’m not going on record here predicting that Kyle will be this year’s Champion. I mean look at what happened to Jeff Gordon last year. Jeff went on a tear during the season - he even had a huge point advantage before The Chase - and ended up loosing the Championship in the final 10 races. I know Jeff didn’t have as many bonus points as Kyle does now, but what happened to him may also happen to Kyle if he isn’t careful.

I also have a feeling that based on Kyle’s aggressive-on-the-verge-of-wrecking driving style and overall negative attitude, he won’t have many allies out there on the track in the final 10 races either - except maybe his teammates, but I don’t see Stewart helping Kyle out if he too is in the hunt for a Championship this year.

None-the-less, whether you might be a fan or a fellow competitor, you can’t turn your back on Kyle Busch because you never know what he is going to do next.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

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