[Racer Duck]

Seems now is a perfect time to turn up the speculation about who will be where in 2009.

With AJ Almendinger having his best finish ever in the wake of announcing earlier in the week that he was not invited back for 2009 by Red Bull Racing, it seems he may be at the top of the list of folks looking for a ride.

According to Jayski, this is the list of drivers (in alphabetical order) currently without a full-time Cup ride in 2009. There may be others...

1. A.J. Allmendinger
2. Ward Burton [retired?]
3. Patrick Carpentier
4. Dario Franchitti [back to the IRL fulltime]
5. Jeff Green
6. Kevin Lepage
7. Jeremy Mayfield
8. Steve Park [ran East in 2008, no word on plans]
9. Tony Raines
10. Scott Riggs
11. Johnny Sauter
12. Ken Schrader
13. Jacques Villeneuve
14. Scott Wimmer
15. J.J. Yeley

So, what's your thoughts on who should go where and why?

[WestCoast]

With the exception of A.J, I can’t see any one else coming back anytime soon.

[onearmsteve]

Dinger needs to get back to the IRL.

[loco4pablo]

There are only like a few rides out there right now

The Target Ganassi (with full sponsorship next year)
The 45 Petty car (no sponsorship for that or the #43)
Maybe the 00 Waltrip car (Sponsor suppose to be announced, no word on if McDowell is comming back)
The 96 HOF racing car

Not a lot to choose from and of the available drivers AJ looks like the top of the list.

What sucks for AJ is, Red Bull knew darn well that they were not gonna be bringing him back and you would think after the relationship they had, Red Bull would have let him go earlier when there were more quality rides out there. Such as RCR's #33 or the #10 GEM car.
Rde Bull screwed AJ!

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by onearmsteve

Dinger needs to get back to the IRL.

Steve, Dinger was never in IRL .. he ran Champ cars.

That aside, he has said he has no interest (right now) in going back to open wheels and is determined to succeed in Cup. And from what Ive read/heard, his Red Bull team (including the crew chief) don't want him to go .. but they weren't asked and it wasn't their choice!

[onearmsteve]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

Steve, Dinger was never in IRL .. he ran Champ cars.

That aside, he has said he has no interest (right now) in going back to open wheels and is determined to succeed in Cup. And from what Ive read/heard, his Red Bull team (including the crew chief) don't want him to go .. but they weren't asked and it wasn't their choice!

yeah, i know. but he can't go back to Champ Car because they don't exist. therefore, Champ Car is now the IRL. that's what i meant.

and he needs to realize he's not going to succeed in NASCAR given the current state of the teams looking for drivers. i can also appreciate the fact he doesn't want to give up on NASCAR. i understand the money is better in NASCAR, but why would you continue to run for 3rd rate teams like locopablo mentioned when you can go back to similar car you've had success with?

[loco4pablo]

Because a third rate cup ride pays pretty good. Probably as much as a top IRL ride.
The thing I don't get is, Red Bull said they would bring AJ back for one more year but nothing after that. AJ is looking for a 3 year deal. But next year there is going to be a lot of shuffling going on as a lot of drivers contracts are up after the 2009 season.
I thought it would be better for AJ to ride 09 with Red Bull and wait for a quality ride next year.

[onearmsteve]

it has to be because there is no way he will run competitively with any of the teams mentioned in this thread. it has to be about money.

[Racer Duck]

He'll go to a team that has a locked in sponsor, but is looking for a better fit, driverwise on their team. There's probably half a dozen of those situations out there .. the known good ones are gone, but who knows what others exist?

Now with the news that Menard is leaving DEI, that opens up another possibility; plus JGR might decide to go with #4 if they get their sponsors sorted out... And, lastly, the rumor that Montoya is unhappy is still floating around....

Then there's the "way-out" things like the open wheel owers (Penske and Ganassi) who might "work a deal" with partial IRL and partial Cup!

'Course all this is just brainstorming on my part .. still.......

[Loki309]

AJ just needs to get himself half way through 09, with contracts running out next year, he may be able to talk himself into a full time 3 year deal with a better team then Ganassi. But he definitely needs something with a full time sponsor.