Lots of news and notes floating around lately about the 2009 NASCAR season. Here is what’s new recently:
Petty Enterprises, Gillett Evernham in merger talks: One of the greatest NASCAR teams of all time may be nothing but history by the start of the 2009 season. Boston Ventures (the primary owner of Petty Enterprises) is in talks with Gillett Evernham Motorsports to merge the two teams in to one four car operation by the start of the 2009 season. That would mean the elimination of the Petty’s second car that was expected to be driven by Chad McCumbee in 2009. This also puts into question the future of Bobby Labonte with Petty Enterprises even though he just signed a contract extension. The big rumor in that regard has Bobby Labonte joining the new Earnhardt Ganassi team to drive the No. 41, Reed Sorenson driving the No. 43 and A.J. Allmendinger driving the No. 10. Of course, this is all speculation at this point.
Wood Brothers going to part time schedule in 2009: It was recently announced that the legendary No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford will be going to a part time schedule in 2009, running only 12 races. The team plans to focus on the Daytona 500 and mile and a half tracks. The main reason behind this is a lack of sponsorship dollars. The Air Force is leaving this team to join Gillett Evernham in 2009 and Little Debbie is joining Marcos Ambrose at JTG Daughtery Racing. Bill Elliott will return to the team to drive the car under this limited schedule.
Bill Davis Racing looking for sponsorship: Another team looking for help is Bill Davis Racing. Dave Blaney has stated that the future of the No. 22 Toyota is “up in the air” as they have no sponsorship at all for the 2009 season. Of course their usual sponsor, Caterpillar, jumped ship and moved to the No. 31 driven by Jeff Burton for Richard Childress Racing.
Stewart Haas Racing still lack sponsorship for Newman: Ryan Newman’s No. 39 Chevrolet has sponsorship for a good chunk (22 races) of the 2009 season from the U.S. Army, but they still need to lock down sponsorship for the remaining 14 races in 2009. Rumor has Burger King as the front runner.
Kenseth extends with Roush-Fenway: Matt Kenseth won’t be the next big free agent on the market. He signed a multi-year contract extension with Roush-Fenway Racing a few weeks ago.
Speed will drive for Red Bull in ‘09, switch to No. 82: In a move that was expected for quite some time now, Scott Speed will drive for Red Bull Racing full time in 2009 behind the wheel of the No. 82, the former No. 84 that A.J. Allmendinger drove for the better part of the last two seasons.
Has anyone been paying attention to the Daytona 500 practice sessions going on Saturday? Well, I have. An interesting thing happaned during both Daytona 500 practice sessions. Bill Elliott, yes the same Bill Elliott with two Daytona 500 wins on his resume, was fastest in BOTH Daytona 500 practice sessions Saturday.
