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Wallace and Newman have a history of ill will. (Grant Halverson and Chris Graythen/Getty Images Photos) ยป More Photos
When Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman were teammates at Penske Racing from 2002-05, there was major bad blood between the two. The hard feelings were reignited Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, when Wallace said Newman was fired by team owner Roger Penske, a charge Newman vehemently denied.
Newman and Penske jointly announced on July 14 that he would not be returning to Penske Racing in 2009. Newman, who won the season-opening Daytona 500, has had only one top-five finish since then and likely will miss the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the third consecutive season.
The Indiana native has cited ongoing performance issues as his reason for not re-signing, and earlier this week, Newman question the effort his team had made this season.
Friday at IMS, though, Wallace said his former teammate had been fired by team owner Roger Penske. “I’ll clear the leaving thing up first,” said Wallace. “That didn’t happen. He (Newman) didn’t leave. … Roger Penske called Ryan Newman up to his office and said, ‘I don’t need your services next year.’ Ryan Newman didn’t come to him and say ‘I’m leaving.’ OK? You all need to write about that. That’s exactly how it happened.”
Newman immediately denied what Wallace said. “I don’t know what Rusty’s grounds are by saying that,” said Newman.
Wallace and Newman have a history of ill will. When they were teammates, Newman and his then-crew chief Matt Borland refused to share information with Wallace and the two basically operated as independent single-car teams. When Wallace departed, Newman praised his replacement, Kurt Busch, as being a much better teammate than Wallace was.
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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