Stop by NASCAR FanHouse on Sunday at 1pm/ET for some good ol' fashioned live bloggin' of Sunday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400. It'll be Chase-tastic!

I've had a few days now to muse over the recent profile piece done in Rolling Stone on the always lovable Tony Stewart.

If you haven't had a chance to read it yourself, I'd highly recommend it. And if you have read it, I'm sure you'll agree with me on a couple of fronts:

1) If you love Stewart because of his rank attitude and keen ability to not adapt to what people say he should be, then this piece exemplifies why so many people are so passionate in cheering for Tony and ...

2) If you're not the biggest Stewart fan but enjoy reading about how drivers really live outside of the limelight, it's again right up your alley.

The article is loaded with juicy tidbits about Stewart's life and the language he uses when he's not around the media -- or at least attempts to refrain from using. It mainly follows Stewart over the course of a few races earlier in 2008 and includes written imagery about Stewart riding back on his airplane, what the inside of his Hummer looks like, and just how "lavish" his Columbus, Ind. home is.

The best part by far, however, is when Stewart bashes Kurt Busch during the qualifying session this past May at Texas Motor Speedway [and as a slight warning, the language isn't exactly Disney movie appropriate]:

Tony Stewart is already changing things up at newly-formed Stewart-Haas Racing, despite a car having yet to turn a lap under the team's banner.

Monday night on his radio show, Stewart decided -- or at least he informed everyone -- that Ryan Newman wouldn't be driving the No. 4 as originally planned. Instead, Newman will parade the No. 39 yet-to-be-sponsored Chevrolet in 2009.

The switch comes three days after Stewart formalized plans at Michigan International Speedway for Newman to compete with the No. 4.

Stewart offered two reasons for the change: The No. 39 is special to Newman because he won his first United States Auto Club midget race with the number, and Stewart wanted to leave the No. 4 available to its long-time carrier, Morgan-McClure Motorsports, should the team return to the Sprint Cup Series next year.

Newman has also driven the No. 39 in a number of Nationwide Series starts with Penske Racing over the past few years.

The second reason Stewart gives, though, seems more like the real reason for the switch after Tim Morgan voiced his displeasure to a Bristol, Tenn. newspaper last Friday about the SHR number selection.

Despite a press conference Friday that left a lot of people with a lot of questions, Ryan Newman is officially hired on at Stewart-Haas Racing -- and a big part of that is just to simply have more "fun".

"The bottom line is that I want to have fun," said Newmanduring the Stewart-Haas press conference at Michigan International Speedway on Friday.

"I'm here to have fun and I know (Stewart) he wants to have fun doing this."

I'd assume that the definition for "fun" carries two mandates: being in contention to win more races and having a nice contract with multiple zeros at the end of the compensation line. Both drivers are known fisherman, so that might be included in the "fun" deal, too.

Leading up to the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, word was that Martin Truex Jr. was going to re-sign with Dale Earnhardt Inc. for 2009, and potentially longer. Truex, though, wasn't happy about the report done by ESPN.com's David Newton:

"It's (expletive). I don't know what the hell (the reporter) is talking about. He doesn't know what he's talking about," Truex said.

It turns out, though, that Newton was ultimately right. Whether or not he was right at the time, though, is still up in the air.

Regardless, Martin Truex Jr. is expected to announce later Friday that he will be staying at DEI in the No. 1 car for at least one more year. In contract terms, Truex actually just accepted the DEI's proposal to pick up the one-year option for '09 that was already in his previous deal.

Truex's move takes away at least a fraction of the rumor game being currently played throughout the Sprint Cup garage area, as he has been rumored for any number of open seats in 2009 including Stewart-Haas Racing, Penske Racing, and Richard Childress Racing.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on location & blogging away at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's 15th Running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Friday morning, word got out that NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart was in some kind of altercation at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis during a Midget race involving a race team that he owns.

Stewart was alleged to have gotten extremely heated at USAC race officials after his car, driven by Tracey Hines, was forced to a go a lap down after officials had deemed the team had taken too long to repair the car prior to the green flag coming out.

The result of Stewart's anger has now been made available online thanks to an Indianapolis television station, WTHR-13, who received the homemade video from a fan who was in the grandstands that night.

The video, which is only 0:46 seconds long, clearly shows an irate Stewart yelling directly in the face of a USAC official. At that point, Stewart hadn't done anything wrong, and its quite normal to see an irritated crew member getting after it with an official in the racing world -- just like an umpire and a baseball manager would do.

Unfortunately, though, Stewart doesn't stop there, appearing to jab his finger into the USAC official's chest before ripping off his headset and throwing it to the ground. Stewart then appears to storm away from the official before confronting another official and pushing him backwards.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on-location at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.


Tony Stewart officially has sponsors for 2009, but he wouldn't divulge much else in a press conference Friday morning in Indianapolis.

The conference was held across the street from Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Literally, the media had to walk across five lanes of traffic outside the speedway to get to it. Talk about a funny sight...) and Stewart announced that Office Depot and Old Spice would be the primary sponsors of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in 2009.

The rumors we've all read about Tony Stewart's car number and team sponsors when he joins Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009 seem to be working themselves true.

As The Charlotte Observer puts it, "multiple sources" are saying early this week that Stewart will definitely be in the No. 14 car and it will carry sponsorship from Office Depot and Old Spice:

Tony Stewart will drive the No. 14 Chevrolet in his debut next season with his own Sprint Cup Series team, Stewart-Haas Racing, and will share sponsorship from Office Depot and Old Spice, the Observer has learned.

A formal announcement of Stewart's car number and sponsorship plans will be made this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, multiple sources said Monday.

Announcing everything would obviously be a feel-good story for Stewart in his home state of Indiana at the track that he likely never stops thinking about.

The two-time Brickyard 400 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard winner hails from Columbus, Ind. -- 45 minutes south of the speedway.

Ryan Newman, who got his release from Penske Racing last week, hasn't been signed by Stewart-Haas yet according to the report, with it saying that he is mulling an offer from Gillette-Evernham Motorsports.

Thanks to Tony Stewart, the puzzle pieces of the 2009 season are starting to match together nicely.

Ryan Newman won't have to worry about Alltel continuing to be the sponsor of the No. 12 Penske Dodge after 2008 because he won't even be with the Penske operation anymore, potentially opening the door for Newman to join Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing, otherwise known as the "Indiana Dream Team".

Newman, who hails from South Bend, Ind., leaves Penske Racing at an interesting time. Though 2008 was he final year of his current contract with the team, most wouldn't have expected Newman to be leaving the only team he's ever driven for in stock car racing. A win at the Daytona 500 in February further emphasized that thought.

But Newman has been frustrated with the performance of the team, both this year and for last few years. Currently, Newman sits 16th in the point standings, and it appears he could be on the outside looking in for the Chase yet again. He hasn't been a participant since 2005.

In 2003, Newman's career looked to be taking off like a rocket. He won eight races of his 13 career wins that season. He followed it up with two more in 2004, one in 2005, and then didn't win again until February at Daytona. In that time, the Penske operation had fallen off from being at the top of the NASCAR game, and it took a toll on a Newman, leading him to where we are today.

Ah, Chicagoland Speedway ... the NASCAR track that is really nowhere near Chicago.

Yep, based in here Joliet, Ill. -- some 45 minutes southwest of Michigan Avenue in the midst of cornfields and suburban houses is the 1.5-mile oval with newly installed lights.

If you haven't noticed, FanHouse as a whole got a huge upgrade Wednesday night (bigger than we first imagined) and caused us to be down for a few hours. We're working out the kinks, but in the mean time, things are looking to be much more friendly on the user end (that's for you!) so that's a great thing.

Additionally, yours truly is now stationed at Chicagoland for the LifeLock 400 race weekend (for the first time in FanHouse history!), and I'm hoping to bring plenty of quality coverage as only the FanHouse can -- with interesting stories and takes on the biggest issues hitting the sport.

Right behind me at the moment (2:41pm/ET) Greg Zippidelli is discussing his driver's, Tony Stewart, announcement that 2009 will see the beginnings of Stewart-Haas Racing, as well as talking about his own personal future with Joe Gibbs Racing. Look for some more coverage on that coming up here on the 'House, hopefully before Sprint Cup practice starts.

In the mean time, I'll invite you to check out the brand-spanking-new comment system located at the bottom of each post. Fellow 'Houser Will Brinson offers you an explanation here.

It's a good day in Chicagoland -- the FanHouse has been updated, we've got a new URL (nascar.fanhouse.com) and there's plenty of news in the air. Stay tuned for plenty more.