by Ron Fleshman  |  About The Author   |  Discuss

I awoke this morning to what has to be the earliest "silly season" rumor I can ever remember. The story goes that Tony Stewart, senior driver over at Joe Gibbs' Toyota teams has been offered an ownership interest at another team and is considering a move. The only fly in the ointment is Tony's contract that runs through 2009 with Gibbs.

Almost immediately, the rumors began to fly. Tony hated Toyota. He wanted to be with Chevrolet again. He has asked for his release from the last year of his contract. You know how these things go. He was going to drive for the new team by Daytona. It got ridiculous.

Finally, Tony spoke to the press on Thursday and set the record straight. Yes, he had met with Haas CNC racing to entertain a deal. Yes, he had several offers on the table and had notified JGR of the offers. Stewart also said that he had not ruled out his present employer for 2010 and beyond.

Stewart seems to be out in the open with all of this.

"It never cost a dime to listen, so right now we're all ears," Stewart said of the latest offers. "Right now it's just a matter of figuring out what we want to do, and being smart. We've had a great run at Joe Gibbs Racing. It doesn't mean it's over. We're just going to look at everything that's out there."

Fueling the rumors has been the fact that Stewart fields Chevrolets for his own USAC teams. Chevy and General Motors also are sponsors at Eldora Speedway, Stewart's half-mile dirt track in Rossburg, Ohio. His long association with Chevrolet makes the rumors of a move to Haas CNC ore plausible. Stewart, however, insists nothing has been decided.

In fact, Stewart said he got a new offer on Thursday morning. He's a hot commodity, and at 37, he knows this is the time to move if the right deal comes along. Of course Stewart insists he's not leaving his contract at Gibbs early and JGR President J.D. Gibbs made comments today saying they wanted Tony to retire at JGR. We'll see.

My take on this is that Stewart will make a move after his contract runs out with Gibbs at the end of the 2009 season. It will probably be with a Chevrolet team and will include some type of ownership deal. Of course, that's 18 months away and anything can happen in the meantime. This news just tells me that "silly season" apparently is about to break out in full bloom. I imagine by Charlotte, there will be lots of rumors. Stay tuned.

You can contact Ron at ron.fleshman@verizon.net

The opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the publisher.  All comments other than website related problems need to be directed to the author.  Copyright 2000-2008 SpeedwayMedia.com.

More by this author: