A change should do Ryan Newman good

Obviously the big news out of Michigan this weekend was the official announcement of Ryan Newman heading to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009 as Tony Stewart's teammate.  Newman will drive the yet to be sponsored 4 car, which is kind of bittersweet.  The 4 was successful for all of those years with Morgan-McClure until they became a victim of the multicar team culture that has overtaken NASCAR.  In one sense, it's great to see that number back out there.  In another, it is just another sign of the times, and appears as if the Abingdon, Virginia operation's days in Sprint Cup are officially over.  However, team ownership came out yesterday and said they were disappointed that "their" number was being assigned to someone else, and that after nearly a full year on the sidelines, is still working on returning to the series at some point.  Back to Newman.  This was a much-needed move to get his career back on track.  Yes, he won the Daytona 500 this February, but since an 8-win season in 2003, what has he really accomplished at Penske?  Sure, he could qualify the heck out of the car, but on Sunday, that often did not produce a strong finish.  The Rocket Man made the Chase in 2004 and 2005 (in addition to a top 10 points finish in both his rookie year of 2002 and 2003), but the past two and a half seasons have been disappointing.  18th in '06, 13th in '07, and a similar position in '08.  The dropoff in performance roughly coincides with the time Matt Borland stepped down as his crew chief, moving over the MWR, and eventually, you guessed it, Haas CNC Racing.  Even if Borland remains director of competition at Stewart-Haas and does not get back on top of the pitbox, just being reunited with a man who led Ryan to much of his success will be huge for the sake of confidence.  Plus, let's face it, the pockets of Dodge's Sprint Cup program are no where near as deep as those of GM's.  And when was the last time Roger Penske's operation even was close in terms of performance to that of Rick Hendrick's, who will lend technical support to the 4 and 14 teams?  Back in the glory years of Rusty.  Stewart and Newman probably won't set the world on fire immediately in 2009, but Tony knows racing like the back of his hand, and will have this team amongst the elite in the garage before long.  And when that day comes, Ryan will look over at the struggling Kurt Busch, Sam Hornish, and whoever takes his place in the 12 car and be glad he made a move that likely got his career back headed in the right direction. 

-Speaking of Stewart-Haas, rumors are out there that Darian Grubb has been offered the position as Stewart's crew chief.  This would be a very wise move.  Grubb led Jimmie Johnson to the 2006 Daytona 500 crown while Cheating Chad sat in timeout for his latest attempts at innovation.  And he won another crown jewel event, the Coca-Cola 600, last year with Casey Mears.  Anybody who leads Mears to a victory must be pretty special. 

-Mears may be named the fourth driver at RCR as early as next week.  One question: why?  I would have stayed in-house if I were Richard Childress, picking either Wimmer or Leicht to move up.  Casey apparently will drive the Jack Daniel's car, with Bowyer moving over to the Cheerios team in 2009 to avoid any conflicts of interest between Mears' former sponsor, Kellogg's, and his new one.  

-Stewart's soon to be former team is in hot water with NASCAR after Saturday's Nationwide race.  Just weeks after the sanctioning body took Toyota's horsepower advantage away by shrinking the diameters of the holes in the tapered spacer, they decided to perform another dyno test to see how the horsepower numbers shaped up amongst the manufacturers.  Apparently, Toyota has either gained back the HP advantage they lost and didn't want anyone to find out, or was trying to make it look like NASCAR's move had a bigger-than-anticipated effect, because some "genius" at JGR placed a magnetic strip under the throttle.  In essence, the throttle wouldn't go down all the way, and the horsepower reading would be inaccurate.  Breaking the rules is one thing.  Trying to impede NASCAR's enforcement of the rules is a whole other can of worms.  Needless to say, it should be interesting to see what kind of penalty gets handed down on Tuesday.  Let's just say, a sizable portion of the advantage enjoyed by the 20 team in the fight for the Nationwide owner's championship is probably going to vanish. 

-Over on the Sprint Cup side, Carl Edwards made a statement today along the lines that we probably shouldn't just hand the championship to the 18 bunch yet.  The 99 is going to be a force during the Chase (and so will a few others, such as the 48 and 20).  Kyle looked like he was in line for his ninthvictory of the year, but the Office Depot pit crew got Edwards back on track before Busch during the final pit stop.  A lot of Chase contenders had trouble today, which is uncommon for Michigan.  Kahne, Gordon, and Hamlin all spent time behind the wall, while Bowyer wasn't particularly strong.  Matt Kenseth used a 5th place run to catapult himself over Kahne and Hamlin up to 10th in points, with a 74-point cushion to boot on 13th.  And all three of the upcoming racetracks are strong points for the 17 team.  He just has to stay out of trouble.  With the problems suffered by the 9 and 11, Bowyer and Ragan are right back in this thing.  Each of them are only 26 points out of 12th.  Vickers and Truex need nothing short of divine intervention (and the 1 team could be in the thick of the battle if not for their little rules violation at Daytona in July...let me emphasize that once again).  Bowyer runs well at Bristol and won at Richmond earlier this season, so watch out.  And Ragan finished 3rd today.  California is essentially a lower-banked Michigan, and he ran really well at Richmond last September.  He just needs to keep it straight at Bristol.  If I am Kahne (11th) or Hamlin (12th), or even Kenseth (10th), Gordon (9th), or Harvick (8th), I'd be a little bit concerned.  Each have strong tracks coming up over the three-week race to the Chase, but one little slip up or situation out of your control, such as Hamlin's blown engine or Gordon's blown tire this afternoon, can spell doomsday.