Tony Stewart will use Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the stage to introduce his new car number and sponsors. Activity on behalf of Haas-CNC Racing to trademark the number 14 suggests that Smoke will adopt the number made most famous by the legendary A.J. Foyt. Foyt has always been the drivers driver and greatly admired by Tony.
On the sponsor scene, it looks like a split between Office Depot who currently sponsors the #99 Roush-Sox Ford driven by Carl Edwards, and long time Stewart sponsor, Old Spice. The concept of splitting sponsorships in order to fund a cup team is becoming the regular thing to do. The soaring costs of funding a top tier racing effort seems to have eclipsed even the most lucrative sponsors.
Tony Stewart is the defending Brickyard 400 winner. He considers the sacred ground of Indianopolis Motor Speedway to be his home track. No doubt he would love to back up this announcement with a win for his #20 home Depot Team. Smoke has performed well this season, but has failed to see victory lane in the cup series to this point.
There are no plans to announce who might be the other driver or sponsor at this time. The most highly speculated deal is for Ryan Newman to join his buddy, Smoke. Newman has announced that he will not return to his #12 Penske Dodge in ‘09.
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