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Danica Divorces: Marries Tony Stewart, They Start a Race Team Posted:0535hrs
By Greg Engle,Editor, Cup Scene Daily Alright, by a show of hands how many of you believe that Tony Stewart will leave Joe Gibbs racing to start his own team? Truth is boys and girls, Tony Stewart isn’t going anywhere. But he is doing a damn fine job of making everyone think he is…. Okay, all you CSI fans let’s examine a few things…. The Facts: Stewart’s contract is up at the end of 2009, and he has started talking to Gibbs about a new one or an extension. JD Gibbs has gone on in record in the last few days and said that Stewart will be required to fulfill his entire contract. In fact late Thursday he released a statement that read in part ‘Tony is currently here through 2009, and from a Joe Gibbs Racing standpoint, we hope he drives for us longer than that and retires here.’ So that seems to end any speculation that anything will happen before the end of next year. Of course there are those who are saying that there could be some type of early buyout or early termination. Sure and Jennifer Love-Hewitt will actually begin to return my phone calls despite the judges order; and pigs will soon fly over the infield at Talladega-wait I actually saw that after a long day of hanging out with fans there once, of course that involved several beer bongs and more than a few shots. Back on track now, pun intended. Look at the timing of the ‘leak’…It was AFTER Stewarts’ weekly radio show but a few days BEFORE Talladega. That’s a lot of time there for the ‘leak’ to float around the press and message boards. And when Stewart finally did speak up he only added fuel to the fire. Thursday he met with the media at Talladega and danced all around the issue. He insisted that he has not asked Gibbs for an early release only ‘made them aware that there were offers out there’. “There’s nothing broke at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Stewart said. “There's nothing that needed to be fixed. We felt like the best thing to do was be up-front and honest with them from day one about it and at least let them know what was being offered to us and let 'em know what was going on and why we were taking longer to discuss our contract with them than what we had planned." Here’s another fact campers. Tony has said on more than one occasion that he won’t retire until his crew chief Greg Zipadelli does. Nor will he move anywhere else unless Zippy goes with him. Now while it’s not public information as to exactly how long it is, Zipadelli is signed to a long-term contract at Gibbs. The next question has to be, how did the ‘leak’ get out in the first place. Who would let that little tidbit of information leave the friendly confines of Joe Gibbs Racing in Huntersville? One of the closest people to Stewart is his publicist Mike Arning. Now I’m a not close friend of Arning but I do know him and I know that he has spent years building his reputation and his business to become one of the most respectable in NASCAR. And he would throw it away on this? And what exactly would he have to gain? No one at Gibbs had their ear to the door of the conference room and overheard the rumor, then ran to their phone either, unless they wanted to go stand in the unemployment line for a while. And it’s important to note here that there is no NASCAR version of the National Enquirer. No rag willing to pony up millions of dollars to get exclusive pics of the newborn twins or anything. According to the leak, Stewart would become part owner of Haas/CNC racing and drive one of their cars. Hmm, from one of the most winning teams in NASCAR to one that is at the height of well, mediocrity (sorry guys)…. Had the team been RCR or Hendrick, then we might have raised an eyebrow, but Haas/CNC? Um, sure. Don’t play the Chevy card here either, Stewart has raced and won in other makes before, and will do so again. The check that drivers get from Toyota for winning cashes just the same as one from Chevy. And don’t forget that racecar drivers can’t see what make of car they are driving from the inside. Does all this mean that Stewart won’t end up owning his own team or part of one? No, that actually may be true. But it wouldn’t be unprecedented. Kevin Harvick has his own parking spot at Richard Childress Racing and an even better one up the road at Kevin Harvick Incorporated. And remember that one guy, what was his name? Oh yeah, Dale Earnhardt. He founded a team that bore his name and even raced against his own drivers all while driving for Childress. So then what the heck is really going on here? I may not be an ace reporter by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know that when it comes to rumors and NASCAR no one does anything without a reason. I learned a long time ago that there is a NASCAR version of the theory of relativity. For every rumor or ‘leak’ in NASCAR there’s an equal and opposite reason. In this case, it’s posturing. Stewart probably wants certain things in his contract, more money, less appearances, a Jacuzzi, a harem, who knows. But by putting pressure on Gibbs and ‘leaking’ to the media that he will bolt is nothing more than a way for Stewart to show Gibbs how valuable he is. I can just imagine the look on J.D Gibbs face, ‘He said what?’ As good hearted and nice as J.D Gibbs seems, he probably took the threat seriously and will buckle down and try and get Stewart whatever he wants. Gibbs Racing might even change their mission statement to ‘Whatever Smoke Wants, Smoke Gets’. The last time a high profile posture took place was back in 2006 when the IRL’s Danica Patrick floated the idea of coming to NASCAR. She even went as far as to have her dad show up at Chicagoland Speedway and hang out with Roush Racing. Patrick was coming to the end of her contract with Rahal Letterman Racing and was starting to search for a new seat. By showing an interest in NASCAR, IRL teams saw how valuable she was “Contract time is always interesting,” Patrick said at the time. “And I’m lucky enough you guys pay attention to what I do. What I’m doing is figuring out what I’m up to for the next couple years of my life. Every decision I make is going to be based on who can get me a car that wins.” Patrick went on to sign with Andretti Green Racing, and won her first race this past weekend, in Japan. By the way I think that Danica Patrick is a racecar driver who happens to be a woman, not a woman who happens to be a racecar driver. There are very few of former and far more of the latter, but that’s an entirely different subject. So was Danica ever really seriously considering a move to NASCAR? Of course not. Not that she couldn’t do well here, but I know for a fact that it wasn’t true because I asked her shortly after her ‘NASCAR exploration’. Too many races, she said (the number of IRL races at the time was 18 compared to NASCAR’s 36), too long of a schedule and why relearn another way of racing when she felt that with the right car and team she could do well in the IRL. As drivers do from time to time, the media was played like a fiddle. They fed into the hype and threw it out to their readers in newspapers across the country and blogs across the Internet. All the while no doubt, Danica was smiling and waiting for the best IRL team to call her with an offer. Funny how things turned out. Now Stewart has rosined up the bow and tuned the fiddle in order to get his way at Gibbs. Compare what Stewart said Thursday at Talladega to what Danica said back in 2006. "We didn't go out and say we're looking to leave Joe Gibbs Racing,” Stewart said. “We haven't made a hundred-percent decision yet on what we're going to do, but we're going to look at all the options -- and the options are exciting all the way around.” If I was a betting man, and trust me I am, I’ll bet Tony Stewart will finish his career at Joe Gibbs Racing, whenever he decides that will be. By the way history buffs. The same exact thing that’s going on now happened in 2003 when Stewart was starting to negotiate for an extension at Gibbs; that time though Stewart was allegedly entertaining an offer from Chip Ganassi. While he did get an offer from Ganassi, he ended up with a pretty sweet deal from Gibbs. Funny how things turned out.
NOTE: I'm a one man show, not supported by anyone. If you wish to donate to help offset expense, it would be appreciated:
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