Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

2008 Sprint Cup Team Lineups (Part 6)
Monday, January 14, 2008

Here is the final round of a six-part series to describe the 2008 Sprint Cup team lineups for next season. There are lots of wholesale changes between drivers, sponsors and car makes, so take notes and enjoy some of my predictions:

No. 83
This Toyota team owned by Red Bull Racing will have Brian Vickers back in the saddle after a so-so season. His 38th in points finish with five top tens and 23 starts will have to improve for this team to go anywhere. Not out of the realm.

No. 84
Ex-open wheeler A.J. Almendinger returns behind the wheel of the other Red Bull Toyota despite finishing 43rd in points with only 17 starts and not a top ten to speak of. Ricky Viers remains as crew chief and perhaps with the driver's rookie year out of the way, this team should improve.

No. 88
Dale Earnhardt Jr gets a new lease on life by leaving DEI and moving into the winningest organization of late, Hendrick Motorsports. Everything is new except his crew chief and friend Tony Eury Jr.

Earnhardt has new sponsors in the form of National Guard, Mountain Dew and Amp energy drink. There are new colors, those being green and white or blue and white along with a very new number, 88.

Performance? Well, there are no more excuses for this fan favorite to perform, read win races and championships. He's got the best COT cars, engines, resources and even championship winning teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson to work with. Prediction? My crystal ball sees at least one trip to victory lane, but no title this year. What do you think?

No. 96
J.J. Yeley got the boot from Joe Gibbs Racing and landed at Hall of Fame Racing. The team made a big decision to follow suite of Gibbs Racing and switch to Toyota. Pre-season testing has already seen impressive results from the team. We'll see what happens once they hit the regular season of competition.

No. 99
Carl Edwards returns after a ninth place Cup season that included three wins. The 2007 Busch champion is set to be behind the wheel of both Roush Cup and Nationwide rides with lofty goals in mind. Results? If the Roush group can get their act together on pit lane, Carl should return to winning ways on both sides. Had it not been for numerous pit lane errors and blown engines, the 'buff' driver would have finished higher with more notches in the Cup win column.

Pre-Season Testing
The first week of scheduled Sprint Cup testing wrapped up last week with Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch topping the single car and drafting charts respectively. Other top runners included Casey Mears, a surprising Jacque Villenueve, Travis Kvapil, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya topped the Dodge charts with a top 12 run.
Over on the Craftsman truck side of pre-season testing, Eric Darnell's Roush-Fenway Ford was fast as were the trucks of Ron Hornaday Jr, Brendan Gaughan, Justin Marks, Jon Wood and Todd Bodine.

From Rumorville
The final Virginia based Cup team, that being Morgan-McClure has closed its doors and released most of the staff late last week after 25 years of NASCAR competition. Without a sponsor, the No. 4 Chevy team can no longer put together any kind of competitive package. This situation has been coming for quite a while. Want to buy a 2007 Chevy stock car or a race shop? Give them a call.

Look for Kenny Schrader to pilot a second BAM car in the Daytona 500 and the Bud Shootout with an Evernham Dodge engine under the hood.

Ex-Cup, Busch and Truck driver Steve Park has finally landed a ride, only it is with a Busch East team, not one of the top three divisions. He was last seen talking with some owners in Daytona during truck practice.

Did you know?

With whom, where and when did the closest finishes occur in NASCAR Cup competition? If you guessed that barn-burner ending between Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch at Darlington in 2003 when they rubbed on each for the final few laps and crossed the line only .002 apart, you are correct. The next closest stat involved Jamie McMurray and Kyle Busch just this past year at Daytona where the two combatants were separated by only .005 at the stripe.

That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will discuss the results of pre-season Sprint Cup series testing from Daytona and more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ