It’s Official: Newman To Drive SHR’s No. 4

It’s finally official, Ryan Newman, one of this season’s most sought-after free agents was announced as Tony Stewart’s teammate at Stewart Haas Racing in the no. 4 car next season.

SHR had hoped to announce multiple sponsors for the No. 4 car Friday, but the deals were not completed. The team hopes to nail down sponsorship over the next few weeks.

Burger King, UPS, and Jack Daniels have all been rumored to be potential sponsors.

Stewart said:

The thing that impressed me the most about Ryan was that he asked all the right questions. We’ve still never spoke about a dollar in the contract. The questions he asked me about were how are we going to win races, how are we going to win championships, how are we going to get the right people in place to do the right jobs. … It was first and foremost about how he was going to run and how we were going to ensure that we were going to get him quality cars, equipment, people to surround him to give him that opportunity.

Michigan Could Be Just What Jr. Needs

Dale Earnhardt Jr. must be breathing a huge sigh of relief heading into this week’s 3M Performance 400. Finally, he’s returning to a track he likes… a track he won at earlier this year.

Make no mistake about it, Jr. cannot enter this weekend’s race care-free. He’s got a lot of pressure on him right now to perform. Every year, Jr. has to come to the same stretch of tracks that he’s not a particular fan of: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway, and Watkins Glen International.

This not to say he hates these tracks. He just doesn’t run particularly well at them. Since 2004, Jr. only has thee top fives during this three-race stretch. He finished second at Pocono in 2007 and sixth at the Brickyard in 2006, and fifth at the Glen in 2004.  

He did lead some laps at Watkins Glen last weekend before pit strategy bit him, but overall, these are not his strongest tracks. He’s dropped from second in the standings to fourth.

As the series heads into Michigan, Jr. looks to rebound as he has in year’s passed. He’s won at three of the next four tracks and looks to work his way out of his slump. And, this weekend could be just what Jr. needs to gain some momentum heading into the Chase.

At this point, there are about 16 guys vying for 11 spots, so Jr. needs to get back to form, or he could risk starting the Chase with a huge deficit, or falling out of the Chase entirely.

Skinner To Replace McDowell In MWR’s 00

Veteran driver Mike Skinner will replace Michael McDowell in Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 00 Toyota for the next three races, starting at this week’s 3M Performance 400 from Michigan International Raceway.

Skinner will evaluate the team, suggesting ways to improve its on-track performance. Skinner will also drive the car in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, and the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway (California).

Team owner Waltrip said:

Michael Waltrip Racing is fully committed to our sponsors, the success of our race teams and ensuring Michael McDowell, Josh Wise, David Reutimann and I have the necessary tools to succeed as drivers.

Waltrip hopes that Skinner will be able to provide similar insights that he used earlier in the season when he drove five races for Red Bull Racing in the No. 84 usually driven by AJ Allmendinger. Skinner’s presence helped the team improve.