Staying, Going, and Gone

Staying is Clint Bowyer, RCR has used an option to keep Bowyer for the 2009 season and "we are just working on a long-term deal right now,'' Boywer said.

Bowyer was asked if RCR is where he wants to be long term and he responsed:

"Yes, absolutely. Nobody wants to shuffle around year to year, you want to know where you are at and know you that your team is underneath you and every thing’s put in place for long term. Nobody wants to be bouncing back and forth and see the guys in the silly season year after year, that has to be torture. Not knowing where you are going to be and worrying about that all the time and trying to stay focused on the task at hand at the same time; I think that would be pretty tough.”

Going, well not according to him, is Jamie McMurray. When asked about leaving Roush/Fenway Racing he said:

THERE IS PLENTY OF SILLY SEASON SPECULATION GOING ON. ARE YOU PUTTING OUT ANY FEELERS?

“No, I have not.”

HAVE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES?

“Not that I am aware of.”

HAVE OTHER TEAMS INQUIRED ABOUT YOU?

“Not that I'm aware of. It’s hard to answer questions because anything I answer will lead to the next question, and there’s not really anything to talk about. I don’t know where Utter got his story, and so it’s certainly drawn attention to something that – it’s, I don’t know how you can say it, it’s like whenever there’s not anything to talk about, and you tell the truth, you feel like you need to add to the story so you can make people believe you. But, there’s not anything to talk about.”

DO YOU WANT TO BE THERE NEXT YEAR?

“Yes.”

DO YOU WORRY ABOUT IT?

“No.”

ARE YOU HAPPY?

“Yes. Certainly, we want to run better. I’m at an incredible organization, and we have all the cars and people that are capable of running to win every weekend. So, the move from Ganassi to here I really hoped was going to be able to put me in the chase every year, and that we’d contend to win races on a regular basis, and our performance hasn’t been as good what’s expected – whether it’s from me, the race team or the sponsor. So, you want to continue to get better, and the car of tomorrow has brought some new challenges. The first four or five races we didn’t run bad, but we just seemed to have bad luck or freaky things would happen to us, and it just put us in a really bad position. But the last four or five weeks have been pretty good, and you just try to continue and build on that. The thing about racing is that if you run well for four weeks everything’s great, and if you run bad for two it seems like you need to go find somewhere else to drive, they say. Everything is fine here. I don’t really know what the basis of Utter’s story was.”

HAVE YOU TALKED TO JACK ROUSH OR GEOFF SMITH ABOUT IT?

“Well, when all of it came up, we just all talked and I never asked to get out of my contract and they never said that they were going to release me from my contract. There was never any discussion of any of that. So, we just were all trying to figure out where it came from.”
and who is gone....

Matt Martin, who? The son of veteran driver Mark Martin, is no longer racing. Matt Martin Matt's career began in Quarter Midgets when he just was seven years old, and his racing experience also includes Bandoleros, Legend cars, the Fastruck Series, and the FASCAR Pro Truck Series.

In 2005, he won two races while competing against drivers 10 to 20 years his senior in the FASCAR league. He raced the No. 66 Ford F-150 Truck. In the game NASCAR 06 which takes place in the year 2005, Matt Martin can be noticed as a fantasy driver for the Whelen Modified Tour.

In 2006, at 14 years of age, he ran a limited schedule in the ASA Late Model Southern Series, as well as running in the FASCAR Pro Truck and Sportsman Series. He won a late model race at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida.

During the 2007 season; young Matt has been moved over from the Ford Motor Company development program to Ginn Racing's development program; headed up by Mark Martin. Matt plans on running a late model schedule very similar to teammate Ricky Carmichael. Mark and Matt plan on working together throughout Mark's limited NEXTEL Cup schedule.

During a March 8th, 2008 airing of Speed Channel's Trackside, Mark Martin (Matt's father) announced that his son Matt ended his racing career. Mark Martin stated his son wants to concentrate on his education but didn't rule out a possible return to racing.