When a story will not go away they say it has legs. Stories continue to run about Jamie McMurray potentially leaving Roush Fenway Racing. And why shouldn't they? The picture is about as clear as mud. If Greg Biffle signs for another round with Roush Fenway this week then Jamie is in a position where he almost has to go to Roush and say O.K., what are your plans not only for 2009 but also for 2010?
In the interim, here is what Jamie had to say in an interview at Pocono.
Q: What are you doing next year?
A: The same thing that I'm doing this year: the Crown Royal, No. 26, with Roush Fenway.
Q: Why do you think (Jim) Utter (Writer, Charlotte Observer) thinks otherwise?
A: I don't know. I'm not a speculator.
Q: There's plenty of silly speculating going on. Are you putting out any feelers?
A: No, I have not.
Q: Have your representatives?
A: Not that I am aware of.
But really folks, how else could Jamie have answered these questions? While I want to believe Jamie, is it not possible he might have really been thinking.
Q: What are you doing next year?
A: Too bad I can't tell him my manager tells me, unofficially of course, that if Tony Stewart leaves Joe Gibbs that Joe would like to talk to me.
Q: Why do you think (Jim) Utter (Writer, Charlotte Observer) thinks otherwise?
A: He has pretty good sources and if I find out who leaked this I'll kill them.
Q: There's plenty of silly speculating going on. Are you putting out any feelers?
A: Of course I am you imbecile, don't you know I am on the short end of the stick at Roush given my performance this year and that NASCAR is forcing Roush to cut a team by 2010?
Q: Have your representatives?
A. Well of course they have, while the directions I have given them are unofficial directions, they already knew that Jack needs to sign Crown Royal up for another deal and it isn't unreasonable to believe that if Greg signs with Roush again next week that another announcement will follow that Crown Royal will be moved over to the 16 as his sponsor in a multi-year deal.
So there you have it, the politically correct answers on one hand and on the other what really might have been going on inside the brain of one Jamie McMurray.
“We have inquired about the possibility of acquiring an existing team,” DEI Vice President John Story said Monday.
Story said the move could come as early as this season and the purchase of a team already in the top 35 of car owner points would be used to shore up DEI’s No. 15 team driven by Paul Menard. Menard is 39th in owner points and has failed to qualify for six races this season. Story declined to name the teams with which DEI has talked about the possibility of purchasing, but multiple sources Monday confirmed Ginn Racing’s No. 13 Chevrolet team driven by Joe Nemechek is DEI’s prime target.
I'll put my money on Jim Utter over Lee Spencer. Look for DEI to acquire the 13 from Ginn next week. Immediately Menard will find himself in the 13 and Nemechek in the 15 working for DEI as the driver of their fourth car. Hell, in reality only the names may switch places. The drivers might actually stay in the same shops as merger talks continue.
That will leave Sterling Marlin in the 14 for now. However, that may not last long. Given the discontinuance of Ginn's No. 4 Busch team, Sterling could find himself out of work next week as well if Regan Smith is immediately put in the 14 to gain experience for next year. Experience tells me Bobby Ginn does not mess around. It appears that when he wants something to change, it happens, and it happens sooner rather than later.
I guess the phones didn't ring after the unsponsored cars at New Hampshire. I don't know why Ginn thought they might.
Stephen Leicht, who drives Robert Yates Racing’s entry in the NASCAR Busch Series, won his first series race last weekend and became the first non-Nextel Cup regular to win a series race this season. Ironically, the same scenario unfolded last season when then-Busch driver David Gilliland pulled off a surprise win at Kentucky and was followed by Paul Menard’s win at The Milwaukee Mile. Until Leicht’s victory, Cup drivers had won every series race since.
“It is starting to sink in. It sets in more when I am with my team," Leicht said. "I don’t think the smiles have left their faces since we left victory lane,” said Leicht, who will look for his second consecutive win in Saturday‘s A####mp;T 250 at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisc. (8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2). “It is hard to describe how excited everyone is. I had to replay the end of the race a few times just to see the actual win and make sure that it was real.”
So who will it be? Marcos Ambrose? Bobby Hamilton Jr.,? Leicht again?
In many ways Martin Truex Jr. couldn't have picked a better time to shine. Truex, 27 and a native of Mayetta, N.J., earned his first Nextel Cup victory last weekend at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. It was Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s first Cup win since May 2006, when teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. won in Richmond, Va. While much of the attention at DEI has been on Earnhardt Jr. and his recent decision to leave the organization at the end of the season, Truex's win helped show that he and DEI plan to remain a serious contender.
"It feels good to hush up all that (Earnhardt Jr. talk) and solidify the fact that we're here for real and we're going to win races and contend for championships in the future," Truex said. "It doesn't get any better than this, you know. This has been probably one of the biggest accomplishments for everybody on my whole team -- the biggest accomplishment of their racing careers. Championships in the Busch Series were great, but if you win at this level, you have beat the best of the best."
DEI will remain a serious contender.
The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated ... Mark Twain quotation after hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal.
Reports of DEI's death have been greatly exagerated
The lady doth protest too much, methinks...William Shakespeare
J.J. Yeley is in the final year of his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing, and team president J.J. Gibbs said this weekend that the driver’s performance will determine whether he’s back with the No. 18 team in 2008 and beyond. So Yeley’s second-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 would seem to have come at an opportune time.
“I do my best every time we go on the track,” Yeley said. “If I get fired I get fired. …I’m not worried about not having a ride. If I couldn’t find anything in Nextel Cup, I’ll go back to racing sprint cars. That’s all I know how to do. I’m going to drive a race car – regardless of whether it’s here or somewhere else.”
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