Teams Without an Assigned 2009 Driver:
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 01 car
- Penske Racing – No. 12 car
- Stewart Haas Racing – No. 4 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 15 car
- Joe Gibbs Racing – No. 20 car
- Wood Brothers Racing – No. 21 car
- Bill Davis Racing – No. 22 car
- Yates Racing – No. 28 car
- Richard Childress Racing – No. 33 car
- Furniture Row Motorsports – No. 34 car
- Chip Ganassi Racing – No. 41 car

Drivers Without a Definitive 2009 Ride:
- Regan Smith
- Casey Mears
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Dave Blaney
- Travis Kvapil
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Riggs
- JJ Yeley
- Johnny Sauter
- Jeremy Mayfield
- David Stremme
- Jacques Villeneuve
- Kenny Wallace
- Ken Schrader
- Ward Burton
- Dario Franchitti

Post from: EveryJoe

Silly Season Tracker – Updated 8/8

Teams Without an Assigned 2009 Driver:
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 01 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 1 car
- Penske Racing – No. 12 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 15 car
- Joe Gibbs Racing – No. 20 car
- Wood Brothers Racing – No. 21 car
- Bill Davis Racing – No. 22 car
- Yates Racing – No. 28 car
- Richard Childress Racing – No. 33 car
- Furniture Row Motorsports – No. 34 car
- Chip Ganassi Racing – No. 41 car
- Stewart Haas Racing – No. 66 or No. 70 car

Drivers Without a Definitive 2009 Ride:
- Regan Smith
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Casey Mears
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Dave Blaney
- Travis Kvapil
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Riggs
- Johnny Sauter
- Jeremy Mayfield
- David Stremme
- Jacques Villeneuve
- Kenny Wallace
- Ken Schrader
- Ward Burton
- Dario Franchitti

Post from: EveryJoe

Silly Season Tracker – Updated 7/19

Teams Without an Assigned 2009 Driver:
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 01 car
- Penske Racing – No. 12 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 15 car
- Joe Gibbs Racing – No. 20 car
- Wood Brothers Racing – No. 21 car
- Bill Davis Racing – No. 22 car
- Yates Racing – No. 28 car
- Richard Childress Racing – No. 33 car
- Furniture Row Motorsports – No. 34 car
- Chip Ganassi Racing – No. 41 car
- Stewart Haas Racing - No. 66 or No. 70 car

Drivers Without a Definitive 2009 Ride:
- Regan Smith
- Casey Mears
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Dave Blaney
- Marcos Ambrose
- Travis Kvapil
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Riggs
- Johnny Sauter
- Jeremy Mayfield
- Brad Keselowski
- David Stremme
- Jacques Villeneuve
- Kenny Wallace
- Ken Schrader
- Ward Burton
- Dario Franchitti

Other Potential Rides & Drivers that Could Become Available
(Pending variable circumstances):
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 1 Car – Current Driver: Martin Truex Jr.
- Gillette-Evernham Motorsports – No. 10 Car – Current Driver: Patrick Carpentier
- Roush Fenway Racing - No. 26 Car – Current Driver: Jamie McMurray
- Penske Racing – No. 77 Car – Current Driver: Sam Hornish Jr.

Post from: EveryJoe

2009 Silly Season Tracker – Updated 7/14

Teams Without an Assigned 2009 Driver:
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 01 car
- Hendrick Motorsports – No. 5 car
- Penske Racing – No. 12 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 15 car
- Wood Brothers Racing – No. 21 car
- Bill Davis Racing – No. 22 car
- Yates Racing – No. 28 car
- Richard Childress Racing – No. 33 car
- Furniture Row Motorsports – No. 34 car
- Chip Ganassi Racing – No. 41 car
- Haas CNC Racing – No. 66 car
- Haas CNC Racing – No. 70 car

Drivers Without a Definitive 2009 Ride:
- Regan Smith
- Casey Mears
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Dave Blaney
- Marcos Ambrose
- Travis Kvapil
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Riggs
- Johnny Sauter
- Mark Martin
- Jeremy Mayfield
- Brad Keselowski
- David Stremme
- Jacques Villeneuve
- Kenny Wallace
- Ken Schrader
- Ward Burton

Other Potential Rides & Drivers that Could Become Available
(Pending variable circumstances):
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. – No. 1 Car – Current Driver: Martin Truex Jr.
- Gillette-Evernham Motorsports – No. 10 Car – Current Driver: Patrick Carpentier
- Joe Gibbs Racing – No. 20 Car – Current Driver: Tony Stewart
- Roush Fenway Racing - No. 26 Car – Current Driver: Jamie McMurray
- Penske Racing – No. 77 Car – Current Driver: Sam Hornish Jr.

Post from: EveryJoe

2009 Silly Season Tracker

Image details: LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Practice served by picapp.com

Much to pretty much everyone’s surprise, Patrick Carpentier won his first career Sprint Cup pole award when his no. 10 Gillette-Evernham Dodge turned the fastest lap during Friday’s qualifying session, clocking in at 29.349 seconds. Patrick, whom some people feel may be in danger of losing his ride next season, will start Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway from the pole position, lining up on the front row next to Bobby LaBonte, whose fastest lap came in 0.163 seconds slower than Carpentier.

Lining up on the inside of Row 2 will be Scott Riggs, whom like Carpentier, enters Sunday’s race outside of the top-35 in owner’s points, and is in dire need of a good finish. Next to him will be 2006 New Hampshire winner, Kevin Harvick. Row 3 consists of fan favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Reed Sorenson, who returns to the no. 41 Chip Ganassi Dodge after sitting out last week at Infineon. Dario Franchitti and Martin Truex Jr. qualified 7th and 8th, and Matt Kenseth and AJ Allmendinger round out the top-10 starters.

Last year’s race winners at New Hampshire, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer, qualified 12th and 18th respectively. Carl Edwards qualified 17th; Jeff Gordon qualified 19th; Jimmie Johnson qualified 23rd; and for the second week in a row, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart turned in lackluster qualifying efforts and will start the race in 27th and 28th. Also for the second consecutive week, the majority of the top-ten starters are drivers currently outside of the top-12. The only drivers to accomplish the feat this week were Earnhardt and Kenseth.

Only two drivers failed to qualify for Sunday’s race. Tony Raines was scheduled to make his first start of the season in the no. 34 Furniture Row Motorsports Chevrolet, but came in 0.020 seconds too slow and failed to make the show. Marcos Ambros was slated to make his second start behind the wheel of the no. 21 Wood Bros. Ford, but was the slowest car on the track and was 0.233 seconds slower than 43rd place qualifier, Joe Nemechek.

Click here for the complete starting grid for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

Post from: EveryJoe

Carpentier Wins First Career Pole

For the third time this season, rain has cancelled Sprint Cup qualifying, this time for this weekend’s Lifelock 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The field for Sunday’s race will be set according to the NASCAR rulebook, lining the first through thirty-fifth spots up according to the order in which they currently sit in the car owner points standings. This puts points leader, Kyle Busch, up front on the pole position, giving him his third of the year, with second place, Jeff Burton, lining up next to him on the outside of row 1. Row 2 will consist of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards; Sitting in Row 3 are Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson; Row 4 will be Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon; and rounding out the top-ten starts in Row 5, it will be Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick.

Starting the race in 36th and 37th based on the past champion’s provisional are Terry LaBonte and Bill Elliott, and behind them in 38th through 43rd are the next cars in car owner points. Failing to make the race are the cars of Jason Leffler and Tony Raines.

*Credit photo to Newscom.

Post from: EveryJoe

Rain Cancels Qualifying, Busch on the Pole

Image details: Aaron’s 499 Qualifying served by picapp.com

It’s admittedly WAAAY too early in the season for NASCAR’s silly season to already have gotten as it deep as it has, that’s for sure … but, alas, I must do my small part in life to contribute to this nonsense, because – well, quite frankly it intrigues me.It all started just a few weeks into the ‘08 season when Richard Childress Racing announced the addition of a fourth team to their arsenal next year, and immediately everyone started pointing towards Bobby LaBonte to fill the seat in that ride due to his ties with RCR and Kevin Harvick Inc. in the Nationwide Series. While nothing has come of that since then, RCR has gone ahead and already secured the current #1 sponsor over at Petty Enterprises in General Mills.

RCR got the ball rolling with contract talks, and then a small focus within the media shifted over to Roush-Fenway Racing. Roush will be forced to part ways with one of their team cars after 2009 due to a new rule that will be implemented in NASCAR that will limit to teams limiting no more than four cars. However, two of their five current Cup Series drivers – Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle – have contracts that currently run only through the end of this year. While there’s not really much speculation that Edwards has any plans of leaving the organization – and, may in fact actually nab one of NASCAR’s largest sponsors next season in UPS – Biffle was earlier reported to be about “90% done with his contract renewal.” Talks since then appear to have slowed a bit, and now there’s some minor speculation lingering out there that the Biff may be headed in a new direction. Of course, then you also have the notion that Roush may work out a deal with Yates Racing that would send one of their cars over to that organization in somewhat of a partnership deal, in which case Roush could essentially really wind up not losing anyone after next year.

Fast forward a bit, and then you’ve got Tony Stewart reportedly looking into all sorts of offers, though his contract doesn’t officially end at Joe Gibbs Racing until after the 2009 season. The most widely known offer that seems to be on the table right now for Stewart is a deal that would give up as much as 50% ownership at Haas CNC Racing, and would also return Smoke to his long-tenured relationship with General Motors. There’s been a lot of speculation that Tony has been trying to get out of his contract with JGR following this season, but both parties claim that no such talks have taken place. Additionally, Joe Gibbs himself has stated that their organization is pretty much set the way that it is in terms of ownership, but if that’s something that Tony was interested in, something could possibly be worked out that would set Stewart in the right direction for such a venture.

There was some question regarding Martin Truex Jr’s contract at Dale Earhardt, Inc, which only went through the end of this season. With the team struggling early on, there was a bit of doubt whether or not the organization would pick up the option they had on Martin for 2009, but they recently inked that deal earlier this week and our now working on a deal that would keep Truex at DEI beyond 2010.

Staying somewhat out of the public eye in terms of contract negotiations has been Ryan Newman, who has driven for Penske Racing since entering the Sprint Cup Series, but his contract also expires at the end of the year. Newman has stated that he hasn’t been talking to any other teams about potential options, but he also admitted that he has yet to sign a renewal with Penske and that they haven’t really talked about it. It’s also no huge secret that Newman hasn’t been happy with some of the engines that have been handed to him through the Penske garage, so who knows?

There are also some rumors that Casey Mears could be let go from his ride with Hendrick Motorsports, which would not only free up another driver for a potential signing, but would free up another seat for one of these other guys. And, let’s not forget the blowout that occurred within Chip Ganassi Racing not all that long ago. If Chip’s not happy with his race teams, then who knows who might be available for signing by the time we roll into 2009.There’s a lot of circumstantial talk within these rumors, and I’ll admit that this post is probably somewhat premature, but all the same – it looks like we’re going to have plenty to keep talking about as 2008 pushes forward.Current Rides Available:
#12 – Penske Racing (Ryan Newman)
#16 – Roush-Fenway Racing (Greg Biffle)
#21 – Wood Bros. (Bill Elliott / Jon Wood)
#33 – Richard Childress Racing (new team)
#43 – Petty Enterprises (Bobby LaBonte)
#70 – Haas CNC Racing (race-by-race)
#99 – Roush-Fenway Racing (Carl Edwards)

Post from: EveryJoe

Let’s Talk Contracts

Not sharing in McMurray’s fortunes were Kyle Petty, John Andretti, Tony Raines, and Joe Nemecheck who all failed to make the race after rolling out of Bristol outside of the top-35 in points. Ken Schrader surprised many fans by having the seventh fastest lap to get himself qualified, and Travis Kvapil continues his search for permanent sponsorship by qualifying fourteenth.  Martinsville favorites Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, and Ryan Newman will all start Sunday’s race from the 8th to 13th positions (in that order).

Starting Grid (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Martinsville Qualifying Report