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Nascar and Racing

Stewart Changes Ryan Newman to No. 39

Posted Aug 19, 2008 12:24PM By Geoffrey Miller (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Sprint Cup

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Tony Stewart is already changing things up at newly-formed Stewart-Haas Racing, despite a car having yet to turn a lap under the team's banner.

Monday night on his radio show, Stewart decided -- or at least he informed everyone -- that Ryan Newman wouldn't be driving the No. 4 as originally planned. Instead, Newman will parade the No. 39 yet-to-be-sponsored Chevrolet in 2009.
The switch comes three days after Stewart formalized plans at Michigan International Speedway for Newman to compete with the No. 4.

Stewart offered two reasons for the change: The No. 39 is special to Newman because he won his first United States Auto Club midget race with the number, and Stewart wanted to leave the No. 4 available to its long-time carrier, Morgan-McClure Motorsports, should the team return to the Sprint Cup Series next year.
Newman has also driven the No. 39 in a number of Nationwide Series starts with Penske Racing over the past few years.

The second reason Stewart gives, though, seems more like the real reason for the switch after Tim Morgan voiced his displeasure to a Bristol, Tenn. newspaper last Friday about the SHR number selection.

Morgan is a co-owner in Morgan-McClure Motorsports, a team that has suspended operations in 2008 but made history with the yellow No. 4 car with back-to-back Daytona 500 wins in the mid-1990s.
"There's some sweat and history in that number 4. We feel like it ours," MMM co-owner Tim Morgan said.

According to Morgan and team general manager Larry McClure, the No. 4 is still registered under the name of the MMM team. NASCAR owns all the numbers that are used in the series, however. McClure and Morgan, who assumed they had a right of refusal for any potential number switch, were clearly frustrated when contacted Friday.

"I talked with (NASCAR president) Mike Helton recently and he told me that he would call me if anything changed with the number," Morgan said. "He never contacted me. I'm a little bit disappointed. It's NASCAR's call."
From the sound of it, it seems like Stewart knew that the No. 4 wasn't being used in Sprint Cup competition and figured that it would be available without going through the official process yet to secure the number for 2009.

Combine that with Morgan's words and Newman's desire to race the No. 39, and it looks like Stewart wised up on the issue and decided that fighting for a number he really didn't need wasn't that important. Not a bad move in my book.

Granted, the No. 4 and the No. 14 fit together better in my mind, but there's yet to be a race won solely by a car number. The No. 39, though? That just feels a little weird.

Tags: RyanNewman, SprintCup, StewartHaasRacing, TonyStewart

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