Several sources are reporting that Tony Stewart and JGR have begun talks to let Stewart leave JGR at the end of this season. Stewart is under contract to JGR through the end of 2009. JGR switched manufacturers from Chevy to Toyota before the beginning of this season. Stewart has a relationship with GM and Chevy with his own race teams.
One scenario being rumored is that Stewart will go to the HAAS/CNC race team as a full partner and also drive one of their two Chevys. Joe Custer, GM for HAAS/CNC admitted that they have talked with Stewart's people. He said they are very interested, yet have talked with other groups also. ESPN.com and SI.com are reporting that it's a done deal.
Rick Hendrick is said to be calling the shots for HAAS/CNC while their owner, Gene Haas, sits in jail on tax charges. Hendrick is the main reason that Stewart would consider leaving Joe Gibbs after 10 years together. Hendrick could promise Stewart even more help atan HMS gives HAAS now. There would also be the posibility of Hendrick helping Stewart start his own team sooner or later. Rick Hendrick made the deal with Dale Earnhardt Jr. work. He could do the same with Stewart.
I wrote a similar blog an hour ago that the site failed to post. I reposted it, hopefully it'll post. Somehow yours posted and I wrote mine an hour beforehand and it DIDN'T post.
IF Stewart does go to Haas, it's in effect going to Hendrick. What a lineup they would have! The new Evil Empire of NASCAR.
hanahan The real reason 'Smoke' wants to leave JGR was because his female stalker sent him this particular picture with a letter detailing her sexual exploits. But most of all it detailed what she'd like to do to him.
Can't say that I blame him for wanting out after seeing this.
'Smoke' supposedly wants to be either a co owner or own a team entirely within NASCAR's highest echelons as a Sprint Cup participant. He may well get his chance given his track record.
hanahan And by all accounts she's got a twin sister who also wants "in" on the action.
Always willing to do anything for her favorite guy.......'Smoke' aka Tony Stewart.
'Smoke' should tap 'em both as a goodwill gesture. That way they can wear identical T-shirts saying 'I'm a female NASCAR fan and we both got smoked by Tony Stewart'.
tophatal ...........
Last edited by tophatal on April 23rd at 11:55 PM.
From another news source: JGR president J.D. Gibbs told ESPN.com that Stewart wasn't going anywhere right now. "The reality is he's racing here through 2009. There's no ifs, ands or buts about that one. Our stance is he's racing for us through 2009."
We all figured he would be leaving JGR right ... I guess the media wants to play up the "WHEN IS HE LEAVING" issue as something.
I don't see that the "when" is much of a big deal as "where" he goes. If he leaves a top-notch team to go to a bottomfeeder, I would be highly upset. I just think Smoke is too business savvy to do that, though. Will be interesting.
Last edited by HotfootLori on April 24th at 6:47 AM.
tophatal - it is TOO damn early in the morning for those pics, man! Though, Jumbo in the second pic is obviously a Junior fan.
If Hendrick is making the calls for Haas CNC, how about Smoke and Brad Keselowski in their two cars next year? That would be interesting. I hope Stewart takes a LONG look at Michael Waltrip's situation, and then takes another LONGER look at it. Owner/drivers haven't exactly been tearing it up in NASCAR for some time, and it isn't going to get any easier for a team to crack NASCAR's "big four".
Lori...I saw the report on espn.com. Tony's publicist also said he wasn't leaving this year in that same report. Read the report on SI.com. I also spoke with a NASCAR team member who says it's pretty well known that Tony is leaving at the end of the year.
None of it makes sense though. Why leave a championship team to start over? The SI story tells of when DW left Hendrick to start his own team. With Hendrick's blessing, and help. They say Rick might be promising Tony the same kind of deal.
JJD...Chevrolet must be promising Tony the moon. Tony must have really felt bad when JGR switched to Toyota. Instead of accepting it and winning races like his teamates, he's taking his ball and going to another playground.
I would love to see him in the #70 or #66 just to see what those cars really could do with a great driver behind the wheel. Keselowski better win A race soon. Jr's friendship will only kep him there so long.
Keselowski better win A race soon. Jr's friendship will only kep him there so long.
I dunno about THAT. BK is consistently among the highest-finishing Nationwide drivers, and he's sixth in points behind only five Cup drivers. I can't believe he's in any danger of even talking about being in trouble.
Hanahan...I think this all might be media hype and quite frankly I will not be able to stand another media craze like we had with "where is Jr going". It seemed obvious Tony was looking around once Gibbs went to Toys but my guess is the when will be when his contract ends. I agree with others above, the owner/driver deal isnt working out so well and if he does anything of the sort it makes the most sense to do it like Gordon has with HMS.
I dunno, seems like a lot of media smoke to me...
JayJayDean
Is she really is a Lil' E fan then she's obviously not letting on. I think though she's real NASCAR groupie that's out to get it any way that she can.
It'd be remiss of JGR to let 'Smoke' out of his contract before the end of this season. So it must portend to the '09 season on the whole. If that's the case and he does want to leave to go elsewhere and have his team. Then so be it. It's obvious that it wasn't going to happen under the JGR umbrella. The likes of Jeff Gordon and others either have teams that they own outright and is running in either Cup Series or Nationwide Series.
It's patently obvious that he wants a slice of that pie and all thatn it affords those particular owners. I'm sure that he could find the financial backing to get something off the ground given his track record.
kris...It looks like it will turn into another media craze. Unless Tony and JGR announce something very soon. We saw how quickly the Kurt Busch and Jammie Mac deals went from next year to next month.
NASCAR may be the only sport in which the participant can buy out of his contract. the first time I heard of this happening was back in the '70s when DW---or his new team---paid DiGard Racing to leave them.
I just heard an interview with J.D. Gibbs. He said, "We're focusing on the things we can control. We can control 2008 and 2009. That is our focus. Tony has to plan for his future and we hope he retires from here." That doesn't tell us a lot does it?
volfan69 What it does portend to is that Stewart won't be with the organization after this season. He wants out and it'll happen. They're certainly not going to want an unhappy driver within their organization at all. Stewart it'd appear wants to do thing by his own measures. And that's either to become an outright owner or in partnership with someone else. It certainly didn't happen within the confines of JGR .
............ hanahan It's obvious that's what Stewart wants as he's seen those other guys make a ton of money. Why it is that JGR didn't offer him something along those lines is beyond most of us. It seems to have worked out well for Jeff Gordon and HMS. It's sound economic business sense. Especially when you consider the popularity of the driver.
volfan...Hey there. It sounds as if JD has resigned himself to the fact that Tony's leaving. Sooner, rather than later. Notice that there is no mention of JGR working on a new contract for Tony. On the other hand Tony's agent could be magging all these rumors just to blow up Tony's value.
I don't know much about those contracts. Can Gibbs actually refuse to let Stewart out of the deal? As top said, I don't think they would want an unhappy Tony in the fold. Just wondering.
vol....I believe they could hold Tony to his contract. Could you imagine how difficult it would be to work a whole season with an unhappy Tony Stewart? If Tony takes Home Depot with him that will probably cause him to pay JGR a lot more, than if it was just him leaving by himself.
I just hope this doesn't boil down to a media driven kicking match and that's exactly the way it appears to be headed. It's no good for anyone... Witness the Chad Johnson mess.
BTW, volfan69 asked me a question about payouts in NASCAR... Her question: Does the Indy race pay out more than Daytona? Since you're my NASCAR expert and I don't have a clue, what is the answer? I see volfan was on here a little earlier...
I think the top-end payout (1st place for the race) for the Indy 500 is close, but the overall purse should be higher for Daytona. They combine the entire Speedweeks output for the Shoot-out, Twin 150's and the 500. Believe that before the 2001 Fox/NBC/TNT TV contracts the Indy 500 purse was higher overall.
Yep, got it. Lachey was All-Pro at least twice before trade to Redskins. Only guy I ever saw that stood a chance vs. Reggie White. Jumbo was very good but Lachey was better.
hanahan
volfan69 It's dependent upon how the wording of the contract. Also there may well be a buyout clause in there. But that's normally predicated upon disatisfaction between the two parties involved in the agreement. In this case we clearly don't know if there's been some sort of disagreement between the two parties. But something is definately awry at this juncture and neither party is alluding to what that is at this momemnt in time.
Now if it's attention he's after, he should switch to Indy Racing, which usually had 17-19 cars in a race. A blind squirrel would win, based on averages.
That or implants!
Hanahan,
What I don't understand is NASCAR allowing teams to poach each other's drivers when they're under contract...it's a brave new NASCAR world I guess, great scribble as always...Gibbs hopes Smoke will retire with his team...but insists the contract will be honored...
NASCAR is becoming this year's answer to the NFL. Not necessarily drivers wanting to renege on their contracts when they've got obligations to their employers.
Go figure ?
All of this is very interesting. I really hope that Smoke stays at Gibbs. But I understand why he might want to try something new.
Maybe this is one of the reasons that Bobby Labonte has not resigned with Petty or any other team. Maybe Smoke and Labonte are thinking of doing something together over at Haas CNC. Just something else for you to think about.
