How about some in car action?

From a Car of Tomorrow test at Nashville Super Speedway courtesy of KHamlin Racing.

The News Dump: August 20th

Texaco leaving NASCAR: After sponsoring NASCAR teams for the last 20 years. Texaco Havoline has decided to leave the sport at the end of the year leaving Juan Pablo Montoya and the Chip Ganassi to find new sponsorship in 2009. [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR handed down stiff penalties to the Joe Gibbs Nationwide Series teams for placing magnets under the throttle of their cars before a dyno test. Both teams have had thier crew cheifs, thier car chiefs and thier engine tuners, indenfietly susepnded. And both teams lost 150 driver and owener points [NASCAR PR via Jayski.com]

Ken Schrader will attempt to get the Hall of Fame racing team back on track Satuday night in Bristol [Scenedaily.com]

Current Indycar Points Leader Scott Dixon will join De Ferran Motorsports for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October [Autosport.com]

The News Dump: August 19th

NASCAR- Newman in 39 for 2009: Last night on his radio show Tony Stewart said that his driver Ryan Newman will drive with the number 39 in 2009, not 4. Should make those crybaby Morgan-McClure boys happy. [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR- 2009 Schedules Announced: NASCAR Announced the schedules for the three big series. The Sprint Cup Series Schedule had a big date swap as Atlanta Motor Speedway will have their second race on Labor Day Weekend. California Speedway will get a date in the chase in October and Talladega Speedway will get a new date in November.

Meanwhile, the Nationwide Series will visit the Iowa Speedway in 2009 and the Truck Series will have the Chicagoland Speedway as a new venue. [Scenedaily.com]

Too much, too soon?

Over the last few months we’ve seen and heard about the great talent that Joe Gibbs Racer Joey Logano has. Last year he took the Camping World Series East Championship and in May he won the inaugural Carolina 500 in the ARCA Series, all before his 18th birthday. In his third nationwide series start he took victory at the Kentucky Speedway becoming the youngest victory winner in any of NASCAR’s three big series. Now there are plans that young Joey Logano will inherit Tony Stewart’s vacant Sprint Cup seat next year. Which leaves me to wonder, is he ready for this big ride?

We’ve seen in the past how drivers that started racing in the Cup Series with very little seat time behind the wheel of a stock car have failed miserably. A notable example would include Casey Atwood who drove started driving in Sprint Cup with Ray Evernham at the young age of 19. After a ho-hum rookie season in 2001, he was moved over to a new ride that Evernham had teamed with Jim Smith, but the partnership dissolved and left Atwood with out a ride. Atwood has never found a new full time ride he still gets the occasional ride here or there.

A more current example would include Michael McDowell. McDowell finshed 2nd in the ARCA/Remax Championship last year and was tapped by Micheal Waltrip to drive his 00 car starting at the 6th race of the year in Martinsville. How was McDowell prepared for this big opportunity? He had one Nationwide start at Daytona. McDowell is now out of the 00 while hired gun Mike Skinner now tries to get the team back in the top 35 in points.

Even the new onslaught of open wheel drivers has had trouble getting adjusted to getting adjusted. Names like Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr, Patrick Carpentier and A.J. Allmendinger have all struggled getting adjusted to the Sprint Cup series and all have few starts in the Nationwide Series or the Truck Series. More starts would have helped them get used to handling these heavy beasts of a car.

So is Logano ready for prime time? Maybe. Being with an experienced team like Joe Gibbs Racing will help. All the other drivers listed in this little rant are not on the best of times. But certainly more track time could help and lets hope JGR has the horse sense to keep him in the Nationwide Series a little longer.

Tune in and tune out

Your Sunday afternoon tv schedule:

1 pm NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: 3M Performance 400 from Brooklyn, Mich. Definitely taping this race. *writes reminder on post-it note* [ESPN]

2 pm Moto Gp from Brno. Czech it out, while I'll show myself out. [CBS]

3 pm AMA Superbike: Big Kahuna Nationals from Hawaii Virginia. [Speed Channel]

10 pm NHRA: Toyo Tires Nationals. Yeah, the Olympics are looking good right about now. Oh, hey pre-season football is on! [ESPN2]

For your viewing pleasure....

<"Trust me, Carl. Chicks will dig you if you stop letting your mom hang out with you constantly."

Trust there isn't nothing really much on motorsport wise:

3 pm NASCAR Nationwide Series: Carfax 250 from Michigan. This race is really hot! Not really. [ESPN2]

6 pm NHRA Qualifiyng from Reading, Pa. I'm sorry folks, but if it's something that involves reading I'm staying away from it. [ESPN2]

But, hey if you don't like this lineup theres always the Olympics, am I right? Right? Guys?

Newman to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009

So it will be Ryan Newman that will drive the 4 car for Tony Stewart in 2009. Well, no surprise there as Ryan had been pretty much the driver Tony has been eyeing his fellow Hoosier for this ride during the past few months. So the announcement this morning at the Micihigan International Speedway pretty much confirmed it.

Of course they’re just glad to be teaming up with each other. "It's just a great opportunity," Newman said. "I think a lot of Tony from a personal standpoint as well as a driving standpoint. Talking to Tony and his people, it seemed to be the best decision for the right reasons."

“The thing that impressed me the most about Ryan was he asked me all the right questions from day one," Stewart said. Sponsorship for Newman’s car has yet to be determined at this moment, but those dominoes will fall soon enough.

Dumb driver of the week

This is a new weekly feature we will have on Going Around in Ovals we hope you will enjoy it:

This weeks winner is a Grandmother from Marathon, Fl (which is in the Florida Keys) who decided to give her 3-year old granddaughter a ride of a lifetime by leting her ride on the roof of her car. The grandmother now faces child abuse charges.

Story [Miami Herald]

Carl Edwards used to date her

Yes, once upon a time Carl Edwards use to date Olympic swimming goddess Amanda Beard. Eventually they went their separate ways (I think it was because Carl kept bringing his mommy to all their dates and Amanda found to that be very creepy). So what is Amanda up these days?

Well when shes not choking up at the Beijing Olympics to people twice her age. She can be found teaming up with PETA campaigning against the use of fur in fashion. Well whoopity freaking do. Hey, we're on top of the food chain, you animal hugging freaks, deal with it! While I may support naked chicks, I surely don't support animal rights groups. Animals don't have rights, you know why? Because they don't have the brain power to get up and make a stand, but I'm sure they will in the near future.

So for now take advantage of our furry little friends while you can before they learn to strike back. I know I will and let us hope that Carl will stop listening to his momma's rants about how girls are "the devil" and bag him a nice one. Now excuse me while I go and make myself a nice bacon and turducken sandwhich. Mmmm, taste like america!

Note from your friendly editor

Hello all, long time, no post. Yeah, life for me lately has been a bit busy so getting to work on this blog has been hard to do, but I'm back and ready to work again. As you may notice the name of this place has change and the format will change as well. I won't be posting news as much as I use to, instead I will focus more on writing articles and rants and the news will come through link dumps instead. But the good news is that the theme and the author of this blog will remain the same and that is all that really matters.