Pre-Race News
As there was a two week gap in the schedule between the LifeLock.com 400 and this race, the last break of the season before a stretch of seventeen straight races, there was plenty of news stories to go around.
- As expected, 2008 Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman and Penske Racing parted ways, effective following the season's end.
- JTG Racing sold one-half interest to former Cleveland Cavaliers basketball star and ESPN anayist Brad Daugherty, and will be renamed JTG Daugherty Racing and enter the 2009 season with Marcos Ambrose as their driver. Little Debbies will be the sponsor of the #47 car.
- Technical Director Steve Peterson, who led NASCAR's safety drive following the 2001 Daytona 500, died on July 15 at the age of 58 of an apparent heart attack. Peterson mandated the HANS device, the SAFER barrier and the Car of Tomorrow in the seven years since the death of Dale Earnhardt in the final moments of that race.
- Due to their recent economic troubles, General Motors has announced that they will not renew their contracts to be the official pace car providers for Bristol, New Hampshire or Richmond.
- Two weeks earlier, Tony Stewart announced he will be part-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009. Now, he will bring a new number (14, made famous by A.J. Foyt) and sponsors (Office Depot, coming from Carl Edwards' Roush Fenway Racing #99 and Old Spice).
- Discussions have started between Chip Ganassi Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing on a possible merger between the two groups. Ganassi shut down the #40 team prior to the Coke Zero 400 while Waltrip's team will lose UPS after the season, with the sole sticking points remaining being which team will close to get within NASCAR's four-team cap as of 2010, and the brand of car to use (Waltrip teams drive Toyotas, while Ganassi uses Dodge.)
Read more about this topic: 2008 Allstate 400 At The Brickyard
Famous quotes containing the word news:
“The village appeared to me a great news room.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)