FastCar Newsdesk for Auto Club Speedway

As expected, Logano to the 20 car; Home Depot and Zippy to remain

As with most Silly Season announcements made this season, the unveiling of Joey Logano as Tony Stewart’s replacement in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota was no secret. Joe and J.D. Gibbs held a press conference Monday afternoon to announce the 18-year-old driving prodigy’s promotion to the Sprint Cup Series. Joe Gibbs Racing also announced that Greg Zipadelli will remain as crew chief of the No. 20 team and that Home Depot will continue to sponsor the team, something it has done since Tony Stewart joined the Cup Series since 1999.

Logano debuted in the Nationwide Series this season shortly after turning 18 and wasted no time building his NASCAR resume, winning in just his third start, at Kentucky Speedway. In preparation for next season, he will run his first Sprint Cup race on September 6th, at Richmond International Raceway, in the No. 02 Home Depot Toyota and run again in that car in October, at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hall of Fame Racing, a satellite JGR team, will field Logano in five races, beginning with the coming race at New Hampshire. He also will run in the No. 96 Texas Instruments/DLP Toyota at Kansas, Lowe’s, Martinsville, and Texas.
HOF Racing released J.J. Yeley before the Michigan race and has been rumored to be in talks with other teams about some sort of merger. HOF developmental driver Brad Coleman drove for the team at Michigan and will continue to test cars for the team. Ken Schrader will also run for the team this weekend in California, as he did last week at Bristol, and serve as a mentor to Coleman.
Reporters asked Joe and J.D. Gibbs about the length of Logano’s contract, but neither would specify, except for hinting that it was long term.

Sorenson starts anew at GEM; Target returns to Ganassi for 2009
After weeks of speculation about the future of free agent driver Reed Sorenson, Gillett Evernham Motorsports announced Tuesday that the Peachtree City, Georgia native and three-year Sprint Cup driver will join the organization in 2009, after both sides agreed to a multi-year contract.
Not addressed in Tuesday’s release by GEM was the status of No. 10 driver Patrick Carpentier, who was supposed to learn of his future in with the team August 15th. Sponsors and the number that Sorenson will drive are to be announced at a later date.
Sorenson vacates the No. 41 Target Dodge at Chip Ganassi Racing, where the 22 year-old achieved limited success. After 97 races, he only scored five Top 5s and 13 Top 10s. He did score his first pole in Indianapolis last year and finished 5th in the Daytona 500. He plans to finish the ’08 season in the car.
Sorenson’s beginning days in NASCAR were filled with promise, as the young driver contended for the then-Busch Series championship in 2005. Ganassi promoted him to the Cup Series in 2006 and he and the team showed promise, but have had declining years since then. Some have criticized Sorenson for not trying hard enough and there are reports that he has missed at least one major sponsor appearance this season.
During a Tuesday teleconference with the media, Sorenson said that he informed Ganassi of his impending departure at a sponsor appearance almost two weeks ago. He also said that he will leave the team under friendly terms, despite comments from co-owner Felix Sabates, claiming that Reed had gotten as good as he was going to get as a driver.
When asked about the status of Carpentier, Sorenson said that he knows GEM is actively searching for a sponsor for him and that he knows nothing more about which team he will be on or what his number is going to be and will not offer that information, until it is announced.
Target will not be Sorenson’s sponsor next year, because the company has decided to remain in NASCAR and with Ganassi Racing. With Juan Montoya’s sponsor Texaco leaving, Target likely will help fill the void on the No. 42 car, as well as sponsor the No. 41 team. Dario Franchitti is a likely candidate to replace Reed in the red Target car, because his No. 40 Ganassi team shut down earlier this year, due to a lack of sponsors.

Bud Shootout format shaken up
Tuesday, NASCAR and Anheuser Busch officials announced a new format for the yearly Bud Shootout exhibition race, held at Daytona.
In the past any driver that has won a Cup pole in the previous season qualified for the race, but that has changed with Coor’s Light’s sponsoring of the Coor’s Pole Award. Instead, the top six teams in owner’s points, not driver’s points, for each manufacturer will make the race.
With these new qualifications in place, this is who would make the February race, as of right now:
Chevy: No. 88- Earnhardt Jr.; No. 48- Johnson; No. 31- Burton; No. 29- Harvick; No. 24- Gordon; No. 07- Mears
Ford: No. 99- Edwards; No. 16- Biffle; No. 17- Kenseth; No. 6- Ragan; No. 26- McMurray; No. 28- Kvapil
Dodge: No. 9- Kahne; No. 12- Whoever drives the car; No. 2- Busch; No. 19- Sadler; No. 42- Montoya; No. 43- Labonte
Toyota: No. 18- Busch; No. 20- Logano; No. 11- Hamlin; No. 83- Vickers; No. 44- Whoever drives the car; No. 55- Waltrip.
This means that Chevy drivers No. 14- Tony Stewart, No. 39- Ryan Newman, and No. 33 Clint Bowyer would all miss the race, because the teams are new and with out owner’s points, while floundering teams, like the two Waltrip teams and the Nos. 42 and 43 would make the race.
The race will be 75 laps, divided into a 20 lap segment and a 50 lap segment. In between, there will be a 10 minute pit stop, where teams can make normal adjustments to cars, including changing tires and adding fuel.
Starting positions for the race will be determined by random drawing, as has been done before, on the Thursday night before the race.

NASCAR puts Edwards and Busch on probation
Though the mid-pack racing at Bristol was exciting on Saturday night, the race in the front was snooze-worthy, until Carl Edward’s bump and run of Kyle Busch, and the ensuing sheet metal scuffle on the cool down lap. NASCAR took action and placed each driver on probation for six races, a period that will expire in middle of the Chase.
For those who missed the race, a perturbed Kyle Busch scraped up against the driver’s side of Carl Edwards, on Edwards’ victory lap. Cousin Carl then turned into Cole Trickle and used his Office Depot Ford to hook Rowdy Busch’s M&M’s Toyota into a spin cycle, fortunately not heavily damaging either car.
In his post-race interview, Busch told reporters that Edwards was wrong to bump him, would likely apologize for it, and compared the Missouri driver to television’s Mr. Ed.
A surprisingly unapologetic Edwards not only fully admitted to hitting Busch on purpose during the race to get by, but said that he decided to do so, because that is how Busch has raced him. Edwards then went on to say that it seems pretty obvious that the two have a rivalry, before chuckling.
Bristol fans and many fans at home heavily cheered Edwards, when he stepped on the A-post of his car to do his signature back flip and likely would have done the exact opposite, if NASCAR had levied heavier penalties against either driver for their actions that personified what people love best about the Thunder Valley short track.
Edwards now has six wins on the season, but will receive only 50 bonus points in the Chase, because the bonus points given him for his Las Vegas win were taken away, after the car failed post race inspection. This means that Kyle Busch is guaranteed the points lead, when the Chase begins.

Bowyer and Mears to make Jack and Cheerios a good mix
Richard Childress announced last Saturday afternoon that Casey Mears would become the 4th driver at RCR, but replace Clint Bowyer in the No. 07, with Bowyer moving to the No. 33 Cheerios Chevy.
The biggest surprise in the announcement, however, is that Childress will not be able to transfer his owner’s points to the No. 33, meaning that Bowyer, for now, is not guaranteed a spot in the first five races of next season.
Childress did say at the conference, though, that he is working hard to assure that Bowyer will have owner’s points next season. When asked if he is considering buying out a team and receiving their owner’s points, he did not rule out the option.
Considering the relationship that exists between RCR and DEI, a likely scenario would involve Childress buying out the No. 01 team that Regan Smith currently drives for. Though the team has struggled, it is likely to remain in the Top 35 this season. DEI has been searching for sponsors for the team and has said that they will shut it down, if none are found.
The reason that Bowyer did not remain in the No. 07 is because Cheerios had reservations about Casey Mears. The likely reason for that is because Mears currently drives the Kellogg’s Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports.
Jack Daniels is signed through 2009 on the No. 07 Chevy that Mears will drive.

Stewart plans solidifying
Tony Stewart says that he has signed a crew chief for his team, but has not revealed who it is. Many believe the crew chief will be Hendrick Motorsports engineer Darian Grubb, who, filling-in for the suspended Chad Knaus, led Jimmie Johnson to the 2006 Daytona 500 and served as Casey Mears’ crew chief last year.
Stewart also says that a verbal agreement has been made on a sponsor for Ryan Newman’s No. 39 Chevy for next season, but nothing has been signed. The No. 39 team was supposed to be the No. 4 team, but Stewart Hass Racing allowed Morgan McClure Motorsports to retain the number, because they had it for so many years.
There are no firm plans for MMM to run any races, but they are still running a skeleton crew at their shop and hope to race if sponsorship is secured.

Bristol takes toll on Kahne’s Chase hopes, helps Bowyer and Ragan
The biggest wreck of the night at Bristol wrecked several racecars, including Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Budweiser Dodge. Finishing back in the pack, the driver fell from just inside the Chase to 14th, 56 points behind 12th place Clint Bowyer.
Bowyer was also involved in that wreck, but his crew managed to make some repairs and Bowyer finished solidly in the Top 10. Georgia’s David Ragan, who has never run very well at Bristol, finished 10th and is just 12 points behind Bowyer, in 13th.

JGR’s Davis to debut in Moss truck; Moss could field a team for Setzer in ‘09
This week holds good news for another Joe Gibbs Racing developmental driver. 18-year-old Marc Davis, widely considered NASCAR’s most promising black driver, will race in the upcoming race at Gateway in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Randy Moss Motorsports, who fielded a No. 81 Chevy Silverado last week for Jimmie Johnson’s Truck Series debut, is handing the driving duties to Davis, a current Camping World East Series driver, on September 6th. The truck will be sponsored by Howard University’s radio station, WHUR, a sponsor Davis brings along.
The team is also considering running two trucks in 2009, if sponsorship can be found. Dennis Setzer, who currently drives for Bobby Hamilton Racing and used to race for the team, when it was Morgan-Dollar Motorsports, is being considered as a candidate for one truck and Davis may be a candidate for another truck.
Joe Gibbs Racing, which fields Toyotas, has cleared Davis to race in the Truck Series, despite the fact that he is running Chevy trucks. They say it is okay, since they do not have a Truck Series team currently, though JGR driver Kyle Busch frequently runs Toyota Tundras competitively for Billy Ballew Motorsports.

Ragan and Elliott run well at Bristol; rough ride for Reed
David Ragan’s Chase hopes are alive, as the No. 6 AAA Ford finished 10th at Bristol. The Unadilla driver is now 13th in the points, 12 behind fellow bubble driver Clint Bowyer.
Ragan’s Nationwide Series race did not go as well. The No. 6 Discount Tire Ford barely ran in the Top 20 for much of the race, before Ragan spun out for the 2nd consecutive week, and finished 25th. He is a distant 6th in the standings. Brad Keselowski won the race over 2nd place finisher and points leader Clint Bowyer.
Dawsonville’s Bill Elliott had a decent night for the Wood Brothers in the No. 21 Ford, running in the Top 10 for a good portion of the race, after starting 5th. He got a piece of the wreck that took out Kasey Kahne, hurting his car’s handling and finished 26th.
Reed Sorenson also sustained damage to his No. 41 Dodge in that wreck and finished 36th. He is 31st in the driver’s points.
In the Truck Series race at Bristol last Wednesday, John Wes Townley wrecked early and finished 35th. Kyle Busch won the race in Georgia’s Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota. Johnny Benson finished 4th and extended his point lead to 119 over Ron Hornaday, who was wrecked out of contention near the end of the event. Scott Speed continued to impress many, with his 3rd place finish.
This week, Canton’s Chase Miller will run the No. 9 Ragu Dodge in the Nationwide Series, for Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

The Bellamy Strickland 120 will not air this week, due to Georgia Bulldogs football, but be sure to tune-in next week, from 12-12:30, on News/Talk 750 WSB in Atlanta and on wsbradio.com.