Ryan Newman and His Contract - Alltel Bought Out

Recently I was asked about Ryan Newman's contract. It got me thinking, I have no idea about his contract. And on top of that, it was announced Sunday that TPG Capital, formerly Texas Pacific Group, and GS Capital Partners, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs have bought Alltel for $27.5 Billion.

This buy out could mean Newman's sponsorship is in the wind. It will depend on what these private equity groups want to do with Alltel. Do they want to chop up the compnay and sell it off in peices, or do they want to run a wireless company. Even if they want to keep the compnay do they want to spend the money to have a NASCAR Nextel Cup Team.

On top of all of that, Daimler-Chrysler was bought out by a private equity group as well. So were will that leave Ryan Newman and his Dodge race car.

With the buy out of Daimler Chrysler, I thought that I had read that all Dodge's had contracts until 2009 and that those contracts were going to be honored.

I found a couple of articles dated 2005 that talk about Newman extending his contract for 3 years with Penske Racing. So that would put him in contract with Penske until the end of 2009.

I can not find anything as far as his contract is concernerd with Alltel. And to tell the truth, I don't know exactly how the contracts work. I don't know if Alltel, Dodge and the other assosiate sponsors are part of the contract with Penske, or if they are all seperate contracts. I could see the Penske and Dodge contracts being rolled together and the other sponsors all being seperate, but I just don't know.

Dodge has said that it will honor all of its contracts (meaning at least through 2009) with the NASCAR teams.

While still under contract with Penske Racing South, through 2009, the Winston-Salem Journal seems to think that Newman could be looking for a new ride. This coming at the time the #12 Alltel Dodge Pit Crew was wrapping up a win over the #43 team in the Pit Crew Challenge. Needless to say, it probably isn’t going to get any better as we roll towards Homestead, with just a race over the 2/3 mark remaining in the season. The Journal eludes to this, but I can not find details on it anywhere.

This is the main quote from the Winston-Salem Journal that is being posted everywhere I look. "It might be difficult to see a ride better than with Roger Penske, one of the most famous names in racing. But Ryan Newman's name is suddenly out in the rumor mill."

But I can not find anything to back any of it up. I can not find where this possibly could have even originated from.

I was also asked what I thought about Newman going to DEI. I don't like that idea. I think Newman is fine where he is and any changes could hurt him with getting use to new cars, new owner and everything involved with that. At least in the short term. Overall I would like to see Newman stay right there at Penske. Things seem to be turning around there. Newman has been running better and team mate Kurt Busch is running up front a few spots ahead of Newman.