[Motorsports One]

It's confirmed!

After 27 races in the No. 10 Dodge, Patrick Carpentier has parted ways with Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

Carpentier qualified for 24 of 30 races this season, but two time trials were rained out and GEM opted not to enter the driver in the second Pocono race so he could focus on the Nationwide Series event in Montreal. The No. 10 car fell from 38th to 39th in owner points following the AMP Energy 500.


While Carpentier's average qualifying effort was 25.2, his average finish was 29.6, marred by five DNFs -- two stemming from engine failures.


Carpentier's agent Robert Desrosiers said the driver had no comment at this time.


A driver for this weekend's race has not been named as of yet, but it was confirmed that AJ Allmendinger will take over driving duties for the No. 10 starting at Martinsville for the remainder of the season.


Mike Wallace has been mentioned as a possible replacement for this weekend.


Allmendinger parted ways with Team Red Bull following a career-high ninth place finish at Kansas. He had given Michael Waltrip Racing a verbal commitment for this weekend's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.


Reed Sorenson will join GEM at the end of this season as first reported by FOXSports.com in August. It is likely that he will be named driver for the No. 10 team in 2009.

FOX Sports on MSN - NASCAR - Driver Carpentier, Gillett Evernham part ways

[lugnut]

Very glad the KING chose not to partner with GEM other than engin's. NASCAR.COM - Carpentier may run full 2009 Nationwide schedule - Sep 27, 2008

[Kiante']

Okay, is it me or all of the former open wheel drivers are having difficulties in NASCAR? I have noticed that lately. The only that has had the slightest sucess lately in Montoya. Allmendinger and Carpentier are out of jobs for next season. The open-wheel drivers are having horrific times in NASCAR... Maybe they should have stayed to what they no best... No offense for branching out, but sometimes your better staying in your niche... Even though, you don't get paid truckloads in open-wheel racing (American open-wheel racing, that is.) Danica stay in the IRL, please!

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by Kiante'

Okay, is it me or all of the former open wheel drivers are having difficulties in NASCAR? I have noticed that lately. The only that has had the slightest sucess lately in Montoya. Allmendinger and Carpentier are out of jobs for next season. The open-wheel drivers are having horrific times in NASCAR... Maybe they should have stayed to what they no best... No offense for branching out, but sometimes your better staying in your niche... Even though, you don't get paid truckloads in open-wheel racing (American open-wheel racing, that is.) Danica stay in the IRL, please!

Yeah, they've had lots of problems. But then they always have, at least since the mid 60's anyway. Look at the problems Tony Stewart had when he first made the switch in Gibb's Shell Oil Pontiac. Or Jeff Gordon when he was tearing up BGN cars for Bill Davis.

All five of Dan Gurney's wins came at Riverside. Mark Donahue the same, Riverside was his only good run. Since the Indy cars run several road courses and WoO runs only dirt, transition is hard. I'd say about the only drivers who have a chance at success in Cup now are drivers coming from Silver Crown, which runs a lot of high speed pavement ovals.

Juan Pablo and Scott Speed are probably anomalies.

On the flip side, how easy would it be for a Cup star, like Junior, Kyle Busch, or Jimmy Johnson (and Shrub and Jimmy have had a wide variety of experience in different types of racing) to transition to IRL? I think that they'd look about as bad as the open wheeled drivers do in their first year in Cup.

[Lefturn]

I think the biggest reason for lack of success of these drivers is the top 35 rule. Missing the show even though your time is better than some is just not right. Not only do you take a major hit in the points, but you lose valuable seat time.

I like Carpentier, it was a thrill watching him qualify all year long.