Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman just love to hate each other

It's a fact that Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman had a strained relationship during their time together at Penske Racing, but even now with Rusty retired and running his own team and also being a "media personality"at ESPN, it doesn't mean that mudslinging between he and Newman has calmed down any. For example, look at the comments that good ol' Rusty made yesterday on Newman's departure from the team that will occur at the end of the year.

"I'll clear this leaving thing up," Wallace said on Friday. "He didn't leave. Roger called Ryan up to his office and said, 'I don't need your services next year.' Ryan didn't come to him and say he's leaving. You all need to write that. That's exactly how it went down. "Obviously, there was some bad blood there when that happened. I love Roger, so I'm going to help clear up the story for him."

Of course, team boss Roger Penske and Newman quickly fired back saying that it didn't go down that way. "I have read Rusty's comments and it is important for everyone to understand that I did not fire Ryan," Penske said. "His contract runs though 2008 and we sat down and agreed that we were not going forward beyond this year."

"I don't know what Rusty is trying to prove, but that's not the case," Newman said. "Roger and I agreed not to continue our association. If anything, it was me more than him. Our goals didn't align." Yeah, like the goal of having Mr. Penske care about his NASCAR team for once.

*Sigh* Why can't we all just get along?

He said, she said: Wallace claims Newman forced out at Penske [ESPN.com]