Penske Racing made a solid choice Wednesday by selecting, officially, David Stremme to drive the No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge in 2009.From the team's press release:
"We're pleased to have David join Penske Racing as the driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge," said Roger Penske. "His past accomplishments and current experience as our NASCAR test driver, as well as his character and desire for success, make him a good fit into our culture."And I certainly couldn't agree more.
Penske could have easily gone with one of the two trends in the NASCAR garage of recent years by hiring in either 1) a young guy with limited experience or 2) an open-wheel driver. Of course, the latter seems to not be working out so well.
But by hiring Stremme, they are putting a driver behind the steering wheel that not only has NASCAR experience (he drove for Chip Ganassi Racing before getting canned after 2007), but also has plenty of experience behind the wheel of a Penske Racing car.
Stremme has served as the team's test driver for all of 2008, which will prove quite beneficial in 2009 because he won't be learning NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow like its something brand new.
Without a doubt, Stremme's wise decision to test for Penske kept him from other Sprint Cup opportunities, but I would imagine the one-year full-time Sprint Cup hiatus will be well worth it when he officially gets the keys to Ryan Newman's old ride at Daytona in February.
In the mean time, Stremme has been racing in the Nationwide Series for Rusty Wallace Inc. and is currently sitting 12th in that series' standings despite not racing in three events in 2008.
