Can you picture Tony Stewart in a Toyota?

This is the latest and greatest from Mike Harper over at the SpinOutZone:

It looks like our prediction of Joe Gibbs Racing moving from Chevrolet to Toyota is less than a week away from becoming a reality. Sources close to the situation are telling us that a news conference has been tentatively scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters in Huntersville, N.C., where the official announcement is set to take place. We understand officials with Toyota, JGR and drivers Tony Stewart (Home Depot No. 20) and Denny Hamlin (FedEx No. 11) are scheduled to be in attendance.

Toyota has struggled in NASCAR's top series this season. Adding Joe Gibbs Racing to the Toyota family will not only bring a championship team to the manufacturer, but they will also be locked into the top 35 in the standing giving them a free pass to race in the first five events next season.

Sources have said that Hamlin will extend his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing through the 2011 season and Tony Stewart, who has two NASCAR championships, has a contract that is set to expire after the 2009 season. But we understand Gibbs is trying to secure Stewart through 2011 too.

Kyle Busch, current driver of the No. 5 Kellogg's Chevy owned by Hendrick Motorsports will join Joe Gibbs Racing next season.

Yates gives up #38 to Junior

Sources from SPEED TV are telling us that Robert Yates Racing has asked NASCAR to transfer their No. 38 car number, currently driven by David Gilliland (No. 38 M&M's Ford) to Hendrick Motorsports for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to use beginning next season.

After a public feud between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his stepmother Teresa Earnhardt over the No. 8 car number, Teresa has decided to retain the number at DEI. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has driven the No. 8 car since his first step into the Nextel Cup Series and must now use a new number.

The No. 38 makes sense because his father Dale Earnhardt who died in a 2001 crash at Daytona, drove the No. 3 and won six of his seven championships with that number. The No. 3 would honor his father and the No. 8 would be Dale Jr.'s current number.

As for David Gilliland, Robert Yates Racing still retains the No. 28 car number from years past and may switch to that number for next season.

I will say that Robert Yates is a class act for doing such a thing. Just a shame that Teresa can not get her head out of her butt to see things for how they are.

The Duece Is On The Loose...

Okay, now where in the heck did Kurt Busch and the #2 team come from? First Pocono and now Michigan. Both of these races were not just won, they were dominated. Everyone has been talking about how Dodge is not making a statement, well it seems that the #2 definitely has their game on and everything in one sock. It is just a shame that his teammate, the #12, can not seem to finish a race or something bad happen.

How about these observations from Michigan:

1. Attendance: I guess not as many people could take off those amount of days to get to see the race. Next time people, make sure you save up that vacation time just in case.

2. Visibility: Was it me, or did you find yourself getting up out of your car to go wipe off your TV set? I hate it when the races are run under this kind of foggy weather but hey at least they got the race in.

3. Moving Forward: Well it is about damn time to see Toyota finish in the Top 1o. Not only in the Top 10 but two Toyota's finishing in the Top 10. Dave Blaney finishing 6th and Vickers finishing 8th. I bet the big wigs at Toyota will be breaking out the good Saki tonight to celebrate.

4. Poor Jeff: He started out really strong but as of late, has not been finishing at the top of his game. Spinning out at Watkins Glen with 2 laps to go and now getting dumped by Kenseth. Now I am not defending either Kenseth or Gordon on that incident. You can decide.

5. No Snow Angels? Here I thought Kurt would do his signature Snow Angel vice pushing up to the wall and doing a burnout. Guess he thought the grass was too soggy after seeing Gordon get stuck.

6. Engines + DEI = Disaster. Do you think Junior and Truex were sweating bullets when they saw what happened to Menard? If DEI wants to stay in contention for the Chase, they better get this engine problem corrected PRONTO!!!

7. 5 Wide? Did you see near the end when they did that? OMG!!! Just when you thought it was safe to go 3 wide.

8. Honey Buns. Quiz question, how many do you think Fatback McSwain ate during the race?

Overall, not a bad race for a Tuesday. I was happy that I am working the swing shift this week so I was able to watch the race on ESPN2 but to be honest, I am not impressed with Rusty Wallace as a commentator. I would love to see them bring back Allen Bestwick to the booth rather then have him down in the pits.

Next up is Bristol and the new pavement. Should be quite interesting. Could this be another race that Kurt could dominate? Hey, anything can happen at Bristol.

No Way For the #8 and Shrub joins JGR

Sources have verified that Hendrick Motorsports will announce it has not been able to come to a deal with Dale Earnhardt Inc. to allow the No. 8 to come with Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the Hendrick team next season.

"We've been working hard to secure the No. 8 for Dale Jr.'s car number next season," said Marshall Carlson, general manager of Hendrick Motorsports. "Obviously, he has a tremendous history with that number, and we know how important it is to his fans. Unfortunately, we couldn't reach a point where the terms made sense, and now we have to move forward with other options. "We appreciate the efforts of Max Siegel and his team (at Dale Earnhardt Inc.), and are excited about unveiling our plans for 2008 in the near future."

The FREE THE 8 crowd will not be happy. Looks like people will be scurrying around to find their new merchandise once the announcement is made for Jr. Talk about a mad rush and the revenue that will come in once his things go on the market.


It's official, Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has signed 22-year-old Kyle Busch to drive for the No. 18 team in Nextel Cup beginning in 2008. “We’re extremely pleased to have Kyle Busch as a part of the family here at Joe Gibbs Racing,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR. “Kyle is extremely talented, as his track record has proven, and he had a lot of teams to choose from in determining who would give him the best chance to win. Obviously, we’re glad he chose JGR, and he’ll have all the tools and resources he needs to win races and contend for championships.”

A Killer Ride!!!

So I finally found my dream car as I was cruising the roads. I came across this 1970 Ford Mustang Mach I. I just had to take my picture with it. It has a 302 block with a 4 Barrel carb. I had to get out a few nakins to wipe the drool. I sure do miss the days of the true muscle cars. They just don't build em like they use to. Hey, the owner only wants a mere $17,000. I am going to start taking donations for my Tom Car Fund, anyone want to help? LOL I will be posting a picture of it shortly.

Gloomy Day at the Glen

Okay, so we know that Juan had his fair share of incidents on the track. Did he purposely spin out Harvick? I really don't think so after watching the replay for the 1000th time. That is not to say that Juan was driving a bit too hard and didn't give the #1 any room but hey this is road course racing and Juan is a very good road course racer but this is the big leagues and everyone needs to play along with each other in the sand box otherwise you might find yourself stuck in it. It was just one of those days at the Glen. Just a side note, Juan did get into the back end of Dale Jarrett also, although that was not televised as much as the rock em sock em robot fight with him and Happy.

Just some side notes:

1. Great job by Ron Fellows and the #96 DLP team...they sure did need a good finish. A Road Course Warrior prevails.

2. Does the media have any sense of humanity? So Jeff went into the turn a bit too hard and lost it but give the guy a break and let him have a chance to cool down and relax instead of shoving the microphone right in his face. Calgon, take me away!!!

3. How about Denny and racing all over except on the track. He sure didn't care about his teammate that was running right next to him.

4. Poor Junior. Someone better check Teresa's pocketbook for a voodoo doll because he just can not catch a break. Gives a new meaning to "Going out with a bang."

Overall, it was a pretty exciting race to watch despite being a road course. Congrats to Tony Stewart. One person's misfortune is another ones gain!

Joe Gibbs Racing to Toyota is the HOT Rumor!

Information provided by Mike Harper at the Spin Out Zone

Oddly, Ford Racing is reporting that Joe Gibbs Racing (Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and JJ Yeley) may move over to the Toyota camp from Chevrolet starting next season. While this rumor has been hot for several months, Ford is pointing to a few clues that lead them to the believe that Gibbs will make the move. First, merchandise for Tony Stewart has been marked down to 50% off in recent weeks and second, a source at Richard Childress Racing has told someone in the garage that Gibbs engine partner Hall of Fame Racing (No. 96 Tony Raines) has checked on an opportunity to purchase RCR -DEI engines. Thanks Ford!

This just in! Remember Bob Nardelli? Mr. Nardelli was the CEO for Home Depot from 2000 to January 2007 and is close friends with Tony Stewart and others at Joe Gibbs Racing. This morning it was announced that Nardelli will be the new CEO to head Chrysler. Chrysler's new majority owner Cerberus Capital Management made the appointment today in Auburn Hills, MI.

How does this tie to Joe Gibbs Racing? While an official announcement has not been made, speculation of Gibbs moving away from Chevrolet continues to grow as fellow Chevrolet teams make major performance changes. DEI and RCR have merged engine shops in an effort to compete against the Chevrolet powerhouse of Hendrick Motorsports and Ford's Roush Fenway Racing.

On the surface Joe Gibbs Racing looks to be the Chevrolet team left out and has the most to gain by moving to another manufacturer. This now leads to the question, with Nardelli at Chrysler will Dodge make an attempt at Joe Gibbs Racing since the Toyota rumors have opened the door that Gibbs may want to change manufacturers? Here kitty, kitty, kitty!

Dodge Finally Gets It Done...

Even though Dale Jr. started on the pole, there was noone in the field that was going to deny Kurt Busch the win at Pocono. It was unbelievable to see how his car just charged right to the front and stayed there the entire day. The only time Kurt found himself not leading the race was during a pit stop where different strategies were being played and he found himself restarting 9th but it didn't take him long to slice and dice his way through the field and up to the front where he stayed for the remainder of the race. Congratulations to Kurt Busch on his win, he truly deserved that one.

How about them shocks! Kudo's to the #8 Bud team for the swap out of the shocks after the spin out by Junior. They were questioning why Jr. didn't come in earlier to do that but he would of most likely gone down a lap or two and never recover. Do you think he spun out on purpose to get that break? Just kidding people!!!

Sorry Denny but you didn't get your third win at Pocono in just your 4th start but hey you sure did hang up in the front the entire day. This kid is going to be a force to reckon with come time during the Chase. He is one not to fold under pressure.

Poor Robby Gordon. Only the 2nd time a driver has been parked. Nothing like being a part of an elite crowd. C'est La Vie (english translation: "such as life")

Next up is Watkins Glen....don't you just love road courses...NOT!

Bad Boys...Bad Boys...Whatca gonna do...

Whatca gonna do when NASCAR comes after you? Okay, I couldn't resist singing a verse for the show "COPS" but you get fined $5000 dollars for not doing a post-race interview? Riddle me this batman, how about those times when we watch the Cup races and wait for the post-race interviews with the Top 5 drivers and we only get to see sometimes maybe 3 or 4 of them? We never hear of those drivers not interviewed being fined and it has happened many of times so shouldn't NASCAR pay the driver $5000 for not being interviewed? Ahh yes, the "Do as I say, not as I do" from Mom and Dad. This is a sore spot for me with these types of penalities.

For the Tony Stewart penalty, well that could be debated with the 25 pts and the $25,000 dollar fine. It is not like he dropped the "F" bomb on TV but a 4 letter word that blurted out of Tony's mouth costing that much? Not that Tony can't afford it, that is like us getting a $25 dollar parking ticket for not having money in the meter. Do you think he would of gotten fined if he said crap? Probably not, but the two words do mean the same.

Did anything happen to Harvick for giving Tony a little victory rub? Nope. Reason is, it was just something between Harvick and Tony since they are good friends and even Tony commented on that during his post race interview along with the word games the two were playing with each other during the race.

Lets just race!!!