Mark Martin has announced that he will be back in the Hendrick Motorsports number 5 Chevrolet in 2010. That's a sound move on Rick Hendrick's part, since Martin, even at age 50, has already won 2 races in that car in 2009. This announcement does, however, leave another winning Sprint Cup driver seemingly out in the cold for next year.
Brad Keselowski, who has been running a full time schedule in the Nationwide series for the last couple of years for Dale Earnhardt Jr., and who is running a part time schedule split between driving a fifth Hendrick car and a car owned by James Finch, won at historic Talladega speedway. I doubt that anyone saw that coming, except maybe Brad himself.
About a week ago, Brad Keselowski told a reporter that he was in 'exclusive negotiations' with Rick Hendrick. Those negotiations appear to have fallen by the wayside, since Mark Martin made his announcement.
Driving a fifth car is perfectly legal in 2009, but it wont be in 2010. Neither Hendrick nor any other team run more than 4 cars in a race in 2010. Jack Roush will have to lose a team in the off season. That team will probably go to Doug Yates, which is closely aligned with Roush, but those are the rules.
It is obvious that team owners are going to be trying to sign up Keselowski to drive for them next year. Is Rick Hendrick letting an up and coming driver get away from him by signing up Mark Martin instead?
The answer is "Maybe, but not really."
There are two viable options that I see that could keep Brad Keselowski more or less under the Hendrick banner. One would be for his Nationwide series owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., to field a Cup car for 2010. Earnhardt has already hinted about just such a move in the past. As a Hendrick driver himself, Earnhardt will obviously be using chassis and engines from Hendrick Motorsports. He already does that in the Nationwide series.
The other option is for the other closely aligned team of Stewart-Haas Racing to add a third car to the mix. Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman are rapidly approaching the day when one of the two drivers will be in victory lane, which will be a first for the new team. Since SHR also uses Hendrick packages in their cars, it would be a logical fit for Keselowski.
It is, of course, possible that Brad Keselowski will run for a totally different team in 2010. Joe Gibbs still only has 3 cars. There is room at Michael Waltrip Racing, or Earnhardt Ganassi Racing as well, but I really hope that neither of these scenarios happen.
I really hope that no matter where Brad goes, he'll be driving for a top team.
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