NASCAR : Tony Stewart granted release from contract with Joe Gibbs Racing

Steve615 said:

Two-time NASCAR champ Tony Stewart has been granted a release from the final year of his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing.He will finish the 2008 season with JGR in the No. 20 Toyota.He is expected to announce a move to Haas/CNC Racing as co-owner and driver at a press conference tomorrow.

http://www.tonystewart.com/news/index.php?article=view&id=313

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=3479199

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Not a happy Smoke camper here with his choice of going to Haas. It is all over the DC airwaves this evening since this still is Joe Gibbs country.

With neither Haas-CNC car in the top 35 (and a chance they may not make top 35 in owner points by years end), it will take a little getting use to hearing DW refer to Tony as a 'go or go homer' and needing to qualify on time or having to use a past champion provisional just to race.

I have to wonder about this. I've been a HUGE Tony Stewart fan since '99.

What could POSSIBLY possess Stewart to become one of the drivers he complains about (drivers several laps down blocking the leaders)? Isn't Haas in jail?

I mean, Dale Earnhardt started his own racing outfit and still drive for Richard Childress. I understand the allure of wanting to be an owner - but just talk to Ricky Rudd, Robby Gordon, Michael Waltrip and Kyle Petty and see how they're doing.

I think this year marks the end of Tony's Career as far as anything that matters. If he's driving his own Hass/CNC car next year, he'll be in 7 races. He'll make the first 6 on past champs provisional and the All Star race.

I was kind of hoping that he would put this on hold and work a deal with Hendrick when the Casey Mears thing was announced. Talk about a superstar team!

I agree he is playing with fire here. I guess he beleives he can make things different. He would be better off if he could have taken Zippy with him, but maybe he realized Tony was driving off the deep end and did not want to follow.

It looks like NASCAR will have their hands full with Smoke in an ownership role.I'm actually surprised that the major media outlets haven't been in on this "incident" between him and two officials that occured last Thursday night at the USAC race in Indiana.If you watch the video in the first attached link,Smoke is in the blue shirt.He appeared to get pretty "feisty" with the officials.

http://www.wthr.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?clipId1=2736029&at1=Station+15&vt1=v&h1=Tony+Stewart+USAC+incident&d1=46000&redirUrl=www.wthr.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv&rnd=83542973

Another link from yahoo.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/Smoke-s-bare-knuckle-ownership-style-gets-its-fi?urn=nascar,96202