A happy Friday to you all, if you're interested in watching cars on the track Phoenix International Raceway will provide a marathon of action. It's like a college football Saturday, only instead of games we get to watch practice and qualifying, more practice, more qualifying and finally, the Nationwide race. All that excitement going on at the track and you're stuck at work watching it on TV (if you're lucky). The Green-White-Checkered is too, at least for this week…
Yellow Flag: There are certain drivers in this sport that make one wonder exactly why they still have a ride. Then there are others about whom you wonder why they don't. A.J. Allmendinger falls in the latter category, having been unceremoniously bounced from Red Bull Racing last season. The guys over at Petty have been trying for a while to figure out how to keep him on, and at the time it seemed like they meant just for this season. Allmendinger, after all, still isn't fully sponsored for 2009. Looks like the folks at Richard Petty Motorsports have bigger plans for the 27-year-old Californian, as they extended his contract through next year. Allmendinger certainly deserves it. He's 20th in points standings right now – better than teammates Reed Sorenson and Elliott Sadler.
Green Flag: Sorenson and Sadler are among the head-scratchers, as is Jamie McMurray, who's been the subject of rampant speculation all this season – by the end of which, Jack Roush has to trim his team from five to four. Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards all signed multi-year contracts last year. David Ragan just brought on the lucrative and multi-year contract of UPS. That leaves McMurray as the odd man out. McMurray was the rookie of the year in 2003, but he didn't win any races that year. In fact, he's only won two in his entire career – he won in his second ever Cup start in 2002 and the thrilling Pepsi 400 two years ago.
White Flag: Even if McMurray (to the left after the Pepsi 400 win) does get pushed out (and we're not certain he will), he might not be left out in the cold. Kenseth seems to think the exiled driver would just be sent "across the street" to Yates Racing. Here's what Kenseth said at Phoenix: "The engine department is the same. Really, those guys are two more teammates, so I imagine – I don't know – but I imagine whatever team has to move out of Roush under the new four-team cap that goes into effect next year, I would assume it would just go to the Yates team and things really wouldn't change that much."
Checkered Flag: Jenna Fryer of Yahoo! via the Associated Press mentioned an interesting theory in her column today. What if one of the big-timers at Roush Fenway branches off to form his own team. She threw "Matt Kenseth Racing" out there, using Tony Stewart's example to illustrate that drivers might look to duplicate his success. The key with Stewart-Haas Racing, though, is Stewart didn't start from scratch. He joined the established Haas/CNC organization. Which is why would make sense for one of the top Roush Fenway drivers to branch out. Could one of them partner up with Yates to become a part team owner?
(Photo by Gary W. Green/Orlando Sentinel)