Brickyard Bloggin': Wallace Slams Newman, Roush Isn't Happy & Busch's Bum Ankle

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on-location at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's 15th Running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

It's Saturday morning in Indianapolis, and after forgetting my parking tag on the way in this morning, I have finally made my way to the media center here at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With that, let's get started on some news and notes from Friday afternoon at the Brickyard:

Rusty & Ryan Still Don't Like Each Other

Rusty Wallace must not be a fan of Ryan Newman, even after all these years. The two drivers had a lukewarm relationship at best while they were teammates, and Rusty decided to pile on some more bad blood Friday at IMS.

Newman said he left Penske Racing on mutual terms but Rusty says not say fast:

"He didn't leave. I've read many, many stories that said that,'' Wallace said. "Roger Penske called Ryan Newman up to his offices and said 'I don't need your services next year.' Ryan Newman didn't come to him and say 'I'm leaving.'''

Now why Rusty feels its imperative that he rag on Newman is beyond me, and apparently Ryan feels the same way. You can read more about the "He Said, He Said" battle here.

I wonder how happy ESPN (Rusty's employer) is about their driver analyst ripping on a driver that is racing in the same series they will be covering on Sunday? They can't be too pleased.

Roush Doesn't See McMurray Coming Back, Apparently

Jack Roush had some interesting words during a Friday press conference at IMS about the future drivers in his operation, and more exclusively about Jamie McMurray:

"With the line I've drawn across the sand, nobody is going to take Carl Edwards from me, nobody is going to take Matt Kenseth from me, nobody is going to take David Ragan from me, nobody's going to take Greg Biffle from me," Roush said.

Asked later about McMurray, left out in his discussion, Roush seemed down on the driver.

"Jamie is important to me," Roush said. "But today Jamie is not the driver that's been productive to the extent the other four are. I look forward, certainly I expected and expect great things from Jamie, but the productivity has not been there at this point."

In other words, could Roush be any more clear that Jamie will most definitely not be back in the No. 26 ride in 2008? I don't think so. Of course, we've known McMurray will more than likely be gone for a few months now, and Jayski is saying he'll end up in the fourth car at Richard Childress Racing next season.

Kyle Busch's Bum Basketball Ankle

There was word following practice on Friday afternoon that Sprint Cup point leader Kyle Busch had been required to go to the infield care center at IMS to have his ankle checked out after NASCAR found out that the young phenom had been to the hospital earlier in the week.

Why was Mr. Busch visiting the hospital, you ask? He apparently injured his ankle during a basketball game this week and needed to go get it looked at because it swelled considerably.

While mingling in the Craftsman Truck Series driver introductions area last night at O'Reilly Raceway Park, I was standing near Busch as he was talking with fellow truck series driver Ron Hornaday about the injury saying that the injury didn't really hurt but the swelling wasn't going down, and that it was a possible torn ligament.

He was cleared to drive Friday and hasn't shown a noticeable limp, so there shouldn't be any worries unless you've got some money on Kyle hitting a jump shot to win an NBA title any time soon.

Of course, that may not be so far-fetched after the type of season he's had this year.

Now, let's get ready to qualify.