Tony Stewart Racing - A Fans View

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As the NASCAR season draws to an end, I thought I’d just take a moment to point out a few of “the end of’s.

• The end of Ricky Rudd’s racing career.Homestead will be his 906th Cup start. Rudd was the 1977 Rookie of the year and has raced for Al Rudd, Bill Champion, Junie Donlavey, DiGard Racing, Richard Childress, Bud Moore, Kenny Bernstein, Hendrick Motorsports, Rudd Performance Motorsports, Robert Yates Racing, and Wood Brothers Racing.
• The end of Dale Jarrett as a full time driver.  Dale will run 5 races, plus the All-Star race, next year before hanging up his helmet and moving into the announcing booth.  During his career Jarrett has driven for the Wood Brothers, Joe Gibbs Racing (winning the Daytona 500), Robert Yates Racing (winning the Daytona 500 twice) and will end his career with Michael Waltrip Racing.
• The end of the Nextel Cup as it becomes the Sprint Cup
• The end of the Busch Series Race as it becomes the Nationwide Series.
• The end of the Buschwhackers.
• The end of the Matt Kenseth/Robbie Reiser team as Robbie moves up in Rousch Racing.
• The end of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. racing in his fathers organization.  Jr. will always race in Sr’s shadow.
• The end of Kyle Bush having to put up with the clean cut corporate twins at Hendrick and moving over to team up with Tony and Denny.
• The end of the Chevrolet Monte Carlo as an entry.  While the new Chevrolet will be an Impala, no-one will be able to tell unless the decals are on the car since with the COT, they are all the same.
• The end of Joe Gibbs Racing being Chevrolets 3rd team.  After winning GM 3 championships (Bobby Labonte and Tony in Pontiacs, then Tony in a Chevrolet) JGR heads to Toyota next year.
• The end of Petty Racing in Level Cross, their home since 1949, as they move to Mooresville next month.

So what does 2008 have in store?  I wouldn’t even try to guess the surpises that we will see. The one thing I think we’ll see is a Toyota in Victory Lane.  In fact, 2008 may be the year of Toyota. While 2007 wasn’t much of a show for Toyota, PUtting Tony, Denny and Kyle in them will make things more interesting.  Could they win the championship?  I believe so.  In fact, in 2002 Tony won in a Pontiac.  Three years later,in 2005, Tony won in a Chevrolet.  I see no reason why in 2008 (another 3 years) he shouldn’t be able to win the championship in a Toyota.

Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR, Nationwide, Nextel Cup, Tony Stewart