Nascar and Racing Chevy

Tony Stewart will pick up the tempo and take it on home under the hood of Joe Gibbs Racing for the final time this season, as it has been reported that the he will gain his release from his long time racing team and, in all likelihood, take off on his own.

While exploring his options, Stewart was most intrigued in potential ownership opportunities and he's had an offer on the table since April to purchase the fledgling two-car team of Haas-CNC Racing. By owning his own team, Stewart believed he could ensure a spot for himself in NASCAR long after his driving days.

But he first had to gain his release, something owner Joe Gibbs and team president J.D. Gibbs had insisted they would not agree to.

When it became clear Stewart wanted out, the Gibbs' finally relented and will apparently sign off on his early departure Wednesday. The team is expected to replace the 37-year-old Stewart, one of NASCAR's most celebrated drivers, with 18-year-old phenom Joey Logano with Home Depot staying on board as the sponsor.

It's believed that the move would free up Stewart to invest in Haas-CNC. It's also believed that Ryan Newman could join Stewart on his new team, and that he would "gut" the current staffing of the company and bring in his own people.

Stewart and Gibbs Racing have been back and forth regarding contract negotiations, but apparently the outspoken driver stood firm enough to eventually gain his release. The most obvious benefit, as noted, to Stewart getting all entrepreneurial on his next go round, is that he stands to already have a large foot in the door when he decides to step away from the wheel and move into the administrative end of racing.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.
On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.

Kyle Busch finished second Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Daytona driving like a girl, according to Martin Truex Jr.

Truex was heated after finishing 11th in the Camping World 300 despite challenging for the lead late in the race. A block by Busch as Truex tried to take second place killed his momentum and opportunity to challenge Tony Stewart for the win.

Busch wound up 2nd.

From the NASCAR Scene:

"Kyle drives like a girl," Truex said. "I mean, come on. We're out here racing for fun. We had a hell of a battle. I had a lot of fun racing today with him, and then I had a huge run and he just blocked me. I pretty much knew he was going to do it. I had such a run and had to go."

It sounds like Truex is a fan of the movie "The Sandlot", in which one of the most familiar lines is "You play ball like a girl!".

Busch's comeback wasn't nearly as awesome:

"What else you going to do, man? " Busch said "Shoot, he's pushing me through the tri-oval, wanting to spin me out. I'm sorry I saved it and kept it in front of him. Grow up, bud. What do you want me to do, pull over? Next question."

Kyle's comeback lacked mainly because someone younger than someone else can't tell that other person to grow up. That just doesn't make sense.

Busch is 22 while Truex is 27.

If this turns into a nice rivalry, I can't wait for the short tracks.

Who Will the Daytona 500? Find out at the Fanhouse Warmup: Daytona 500.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumped to the top of the speed chart Tuesday morning at Daytona International Speedway, in a possible effort to gain some credence to his crew chief's predictions for 2008.

Monday afternoon, Tony Eury Jr. predicted his driver would pilot the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 to four race victories in the coming season.

Earnhardt Jr.'s lap of 185.820mph landed him the fastest single-lap speed of any driver through both this and last week's test session at the legendary 2.5-mile track. That figure will stand as the top overall single-lap time as the Sprint Cup Series drivers will now switch to multi-car drafting mode for the afternoon session on Tuesday.

Wednesday, testing will wrap up with two more drafting sessions in the schedule -- pending forecasted afternoon rain stays away. If Wednesday is enough of a washout, Thursday is scheduled as the additional rain-date but the forecast that day looks even worse.

The Toyotas remained a strong presence at the top of the leader board Tuesday morning with Michael Waltrip, Brian Vickers, Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart rounding out the Top-5 of the final single-lap session.

There were no reported incidents in the morning session, but stay tuned to NASCAR Fanhouse for updates on the Tuesday afternoon session and activities on Wednesday.

It's not everyday that a crew chief makes a firm prediction on how many times he expects to visit victory lane before a season.

For the most part, they'll stick to quotes and phrases like "we'll find victory lane" or "we look forward to contending for some wins".

That thinking doesn't apply to Tony Eury Jr., the transplanted crew chief of the transplanted Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt Jr. will pilot Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet for the first time in Sprint Cup competition in February at Daytona.

Eury Jr. had a pretty dismal year in 2007 with Dale Earnhardt Inc. as he first watched his team rocked by the news that NASCAR's superstar of superstars was departing the team for greener pastures. Then, down the stretch of the season, Earnhardt Jr. had multiple chances to bring home a victory until a mechanical problem or other incident ruined his chances.

That being said, Eury Jr. says, 2008 looks pretty promising:

"I'd be very disappointed if we don't win at least four, to be honest," he said. "I mean, I just look at the races that we had problems with last year, and we were running in the top three and in contention."

Now four might be a stretch for most teams, but you can't count out the three pieces to the puzzle here: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Eury Jr., and Hendrick Motorsports. All of three of those have got to count for something.

But how does Eury Jr. expect to find victory lane with such a new team?

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson.

Driver: Jimmie Johnson -- El Cajon, California
Team: No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet
Points: 1st place (+77)
2006: 2006 Champ
Key Stats: 10 wins, 4 poles, 20 Top-5s, 24 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Other than "incredible", are there words that can accurately portray Jimmie Johnson's run to the 2007 championship?

"Amazing", "Wow", and "You've got to be kidding me" might make that list.

Regardless, the effort put out by Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the No. 48 team was something for the ages in the final ten deciding races of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season in 2007. His average finish during that span? 5th.

And oh yeah, he won four-straight in the final 5 races.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 2nd-place Jeff Gordon.

Driver: Jeff Gordon -- Vallejo, California
Team: No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet
Points: 2nd (-77)
2006: 6th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 6 wins, 10 poles, 21 Top-5s, 30 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

It's not often that a driver can set the record for the most Top-10s ever in a season, win six times, have a single DNF, earn the most points in each race of any driver and not walk away from the season-ending race without a championship trophy in hand.

That's the case, unless your name is Jeff Gordon and the season is 2007 and your facing Jimmie Johnson.

Gordon had arguably one of the best seasons ever put forward in NASCAR history -- one that rivals his 13-win 1998 campaign -- but fell 77 points short of the title after Jimmie Johnson put forth one of the best 10-race stretches in NASCAR history at precisely the right time.

That surge, of course, came during the ten-race Chase playoff system that NASCAR instituted in 2004.

Gordon was no slouch in the Chase, though. Two wins at Talladega and Charlotte combined with 9 Top-10s would have won the title for Gordon in any other Chase year, but the monster from within at Hendrick Motorsports ultimately showed Gordon up in a what would have been a storybook ending.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 3rd-place Clint Bowyer.

Driver: Clint Bowyer -- Emporia, Kansas
Team: No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet
Points: 3rd (-346)
2006: 17th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 2 poles, 1 win, 5 Top-5s, 17 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Easily, Clint Bowyer takes the 2007 season's NASCAR most improved driver of the year.

Not only did the Kansas native score a 14-place better finish in the season standings, but Bowyer scored his first career Cup Series win at New Hampshire. The win was impressive enough, but for Bowyer to come up with a such a victory when it truly mattered during his first Chase was all the more incredible.

Additionally, Bowyer turned out to be the lone driver who could effectively battle the two-headed Hendrick Motorsports monster of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for a good majority of the Chase. Though the run didn't pan out, Bowyer showed some tough tenacity that bodes well for the future for the Richard Childress Driver.

Clint's two pole runs in 2007 came at Darlington in May and then he won from the pole at New Hampshire.

Bowyer's strong showing in the Chase was in direct correlation to the way the team battled through some adversity during the 10-race playoff run. Bowyer's worst finish came when he had officially been taken out of the running for the title in the season's final race at Homestead.

Otherwise, Bowyer saw a 19th-place finish at Texas ruin his chances at the Hendrick duo. The remaining eight finishes had five in the Top-5 and the rest still within the Top-15.

2008 looks like it could be a good year for Bowyer. His lone victory came in the next-generation race car being used full-time in 2008 by NASCAR. His teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton were both in the Chase.

And most importantly, everything from his sponsor to his crew chief are back and ready to take on 2008 with no interruptions -- something that's hard to come across in this day of NASCAR racing.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 6th-place Tony Stewart.
Driver: Tony Stewart -- Columbus, Indiana
Team: No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet
Points: 6th (-481)
2006: 11th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 3 wins, 11 Top-5s, 23 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes, change from Chevy to Toyota

If you were Tony Stewart, you'd see that you didn't win the championship in 2007 and look no further.

You didn't win. End of story. Bring on 2008.

But fortunately, you're not Tony Stewart so you want to know why driver No. 20 didn't win the 2007 Nextel Cup crown despite a solid outlook for success heading in to the Chase.

Stewart has taken two career Cup titles and the last one he won came on the heels of a very, very strong run in the Chase. Tony has been known to habitually start the season slow (which he did, crashing at Daytona) and gain momentum in the summer (won at Chicago & the Brickyard in July and at Watkins Glen in August) and then finish strong as a guy to beat in the Chase.

Stewart followed that strategy to a near 'T' all the way until it really mattered. The Chase. Crunch time.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 8th-place Jeff Burton.

Driver: Jeff Burton -- South Boston, Virginia
Team: No. 31 Cingular/AT&T Chevrolet
Points: 8th (-491)
2006: 7th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 wins, 9 Top-5s, 18 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Jeff Burton's most newsworthy event of the year didn't even come on the race track.

Over the summer, Burton's sponsor AT&T sued NASCAR for the right to change the brand on the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet from Cingular to AT&T. The issue, which originally arose over a grandfather clause in the contract for Sprint/Nextel to become the title sponsor of the Cup Series, was eventually settled after AT&T agreed to depart the sport after 2008 with the allowance of running the AT&T brand on Burton's car until that point.

For a few races though late in the summer, though, Burton's car was painted bright orange with no sponsors -- an indication of some severe problems NASCAR is having with growing the sport by alienating potential sponsors.

On the track, though, Burton scored his lone victory at the track that he scored his first career one -- at Texas Motor Speedway in April. A thrilling duel with former teammate Matt Kenseth sealed the end of the race that interestingly enough with all of Burton's sponsor troubles saw the No. 31 enter victory lane with a special primary sponsor of Prilosec OTC.

Aside from Texas, Burton's 2007 campaign was nothing other than typical Jeff Burton -- consistent.

Burton made the Chase and likely would have fared much higher in the final standings if he would have been able to skip Talladega and Kansas. Burton finished those events 43rd and 36th, respectively.

Finishes of 18th and 12th coupled with six Top-10s -- four straight to finish the season, nonetheless -- showed Burton had a mildly successful playoff run with plenty to build on for 2008.

The sign of Burton's Childress teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick also making the Chase should be good for the whole RCR outfit in 2008.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 10th-place Kevin Harvick.

Driver: Kevin Harvick -- Bakersfield, California
Team: No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet
Points: 10th (-524)
2006: 4th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 win, 4 Top-5s, 15 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Kevin Harvick won just one points-paying race in 2007 but still managed to win the most money in the Nextel Cup Series for anyone not named Jimmie Johnson.

Winning the Daytona 500 and the Nextel All-Star Challenge will do that for you. Harvick's combined total was nearly $7.5 million to Johnson's $7.6 million+.

Harvick's win at the Daytona 500 -- the season's first points event -- was surprising and utterly thrilling. With cars spinning and flipping behind him, Harvick edged Mark Martin for his first victory in The Great American Race. In the following race, Harvick was in position to win before a late-race flat tire.

Nonetheless, Harvick looked poised to run for the title.

That wasn't to be, though, as Harvick didn't find victory lane after his win in the season-opener and had his next-best highlight due to a wreck and scuffle with Juan Pablo Montoya at Watkins Glen in August.

In the Chase, Harvick was hardly a threat to win the title after managing six finishes outside of the Top-15. His best finish was sixth, twice.

Harvick's team Richard Childress Racing was initially thought to be one of the top Car of Tomorrow programs, but that thought soon faded. RCR will need that program to be substantially improved in order for Harvick to not only make a lot of money in 2008, but win a few more.