The News Dump: August 19th

NASCAR- Newman in 39 for 2009: Last night on his radio show Tony Stewart said that his driver Ryan Newman will drive with the number 39 in 2009, not 4. Should make those crybaby Morgan-McClure boys happy. [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR- 2009 Schedules Announced: NASCAR Announced the schedules for the three big series. The Sprint Cup Series Schedule had a big date swap as Atlanta Motor Speedway will have their second race on Labor Day Weekend. California Speedway will get a date in the chase in October and Talladega Speedway will get a new date in November.

Meanwhile, the Nationwide Series will visit the Iowa Speedway in 2009 and the Truck Series will have the Chicagoland Speedway as a new venue. [Scenedaily.com]

Newman to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009

So it will be Ryan Newman that will drive the 4 car for Tony Stewart in 2009. Well, no surprise there as Ryan had been pretty much the driver Tony has been eyeing his fellow Hoosier for this ride during the past few months. So the announcement this morning at the Micihigan International Speedway pretty much confirmed it.

Of course they�re just glad to be teaming up with each other. "It's just a great opportunity," Newman said. "I think a lot of Tony from a personal standpoint as well as a driving standpoint. Talking to Tony and his people, it seemed to be the best decision for the right reasons."

�The thing that impressed me the most about Ryan was he asked me all the right questions from day one," Stewart said. Sponsorship for Newman�s car has yet to be determined at this moment, but those dominoes will fall soon enough.

Your Random NASCAR News Update for July 28th

Adios, Mexico: After four years of racing south of the border, the NASCAR Nationwide Series will not return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 2009. Attendance at the race in Mexico has dropped every year since the series started racing south of the border in 2005.

"This was never about a single event. The big idea was to strengthen motorsports in Mexico," said Robbie Weiss, NASCAR�s vice-president of its international efforts. "We didn't create racing in Mexico and it has a long heritage, but in reality the racing market down there was very fragmented.

"The idea was could we help relaunch and strengthen the Mexican motorsports community with the big idea of launching a national championship that would be the most significant championship in the country."

And so far the idea of launching a National Championship has worked with the NASCAR Corona Mexico Series, which is holding 14 races this year. Unfortunately holding major series race down there has not worked. In my opinion, I think the lack of drivers from Mexico up in the Nationwide Series running is probably what keeps the race in Mexico from being any more successful.

The Nationwide Series will race at a new venue in 2009 to replace the Mexico race and the most likely candidate to take its place is the Iowa Speedway.

NASCAR removes Mexico City from schedule [thatsracin.com]

Petty taking another weekend off: Kyle Petty is taking another week off from driving his Cup car, but with usual fill-in driver Terry Labonte driving for Evernham Motorsports this week means that the Petty Enterprises team will have to find another driver to fill in for Petty. Most likely Chad McCumbee, who failed to qualify with Petty�s car, may be that driver. This move is making some people speculate that Kyle Petty�s career as a driver may be slowly coming to an end. Petty has not been behind the wheel of the 45 car since the Coca-Cola 600 back in May.

Petty out at Pocono [ESPN.com]

Newman not on Joe Gibbs Racing�s wish list: Ryan Newman is leaving Penske Racing at the 2008, but don�t count on Joe Gibbs Racing to be his destination in 2009. JGR President J.D.Gibbs said that Newman isn�t the person they�re looking for to replace Tony Stewart�s empty seat in 2009.

"It would be hard," Gibbs said before the Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "Another time, another day, maybe. He's a great individual. You would love to have him on your team. It�s just all those ducks aren't in a row."

Gibbs also denied the possibility of JGR expanding to four teams in 2009.

Newman�s most likely replacement at Penske Racing, David Stremme, is feeling pretty upbeat about maybe driving the 12 car in 2009: �We�ve talked,� Stremme told NASCAR Scene on Saturday at O�Reilly Raceway Park. �Obviously, I�m doing testing for them. But there are a lot of opportunities open, too.

�Who wouldn�t want to be racing for Roger Penske? He�s very successful in motorsports. I like how they do their program,� Stremme continued. �I just want to run good, and I want to be around people that want to race and perform,� Stremme said. �I can get right back in there and be competitive. I�m in the cars about every week testing.

�It�d be cool to get to drive for him - or another organization. But it�d be neat really for him because his reputation in motorsports and the success he�s had.� Stremme has talked to

Newman's List Getting Shorter [ESPN.com]

Stremme has talked to Penske Racing about driving No. 12 in 2009 [Scenedaily.com]

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]

Stewart maybe looking at sponsorship for Haas CNC team

Of course you've all heard by now that Tony Stewart may be looking into buying into the troubled Haas CNC team. Well sponsorship for those teams may be lining up already. ESPN.com has been reporting that if Stewart joins Haas CNC he may be sponsored by Office Depot or Old Spice, there have also been speculation that Stewart may leave Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the year and Joey Lagano may come to Sprint Cup racing sooner than expected because of Stewart's absence. Of course Stewart is mum on the situation and Joe Gibbs Racing says that Tony isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

The second question is who will join Tony at Haas CNC if such moves do happen. Rumoured drivers include Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr., both drivers have contracts that expire at the end of the year. It also rumored that Truex may bring his Bass Pro sponsorship with him from DEI. UPS also may sponsor the second the car.

But for right now everyone is waiting for Tony Stewart's move and he isn't budging.

With Haas partnership possible, Stewart has eye on sponsorship [ESPN.com]

Newman listening to new deals, Penske looking for sponsorship

Another piece in the NASCAR silly season puzzle is that of Ryan Newman, Newman's contract with Penske Racing is up and Newman may be looking at new rides for 2009. Newman doesn't show any concern over the issue though.

"I know that once you're in this place [Sprint Cup racing], you're pretty much locked in unless you screw up," Newman said. "There's no point in being emotional about something that doesn't require emotion."

"I have to do that to be fair to myself. I'm not leading the points, and if I was, it would be a no-brainer. It's not like marriage. It's not like we're locked in for life. You can stop with whoever you're dating and date someone else. You can have more than one phone number in your phone."

Team owner Roger Penske has said the negotiations with Newman have been "very open." "I've talked to drivers, and drivers have talked to us," Penske said. "[Newman] and I have had very open conversations for several months. It's good that everybody gets a chance to see what's out there and what are the opportunities and at the time we've got to make a decision, we'll make it."

Another problem that has arisen is that Alltel, Newman's sponsor, has been bought out by rival Verizon which means they can not sponsor a car in the Sprint Cup series due to Sprint's agreement with NASCAR. That means Newman's ride is without sponsorship, though Roger Penske has said that the 12 car will be running even without sponsorship.

Newman working on deal with Penske, but listening to others (ESPN.com)