That minority stake has got to burn sometimes since the team used to be known as Gillett Evernham Motorsports and simply as Evernham Motorsports before that, since he was the founder and majority owner.

The word is that he's trying to get out of that minority ownership (and its non-compete clause) so he can return to the racetrack as early as next year to work with another team, according to NASCAR.com. Evernham is spending the next few weeks trying to work out the legal issues while an offer from ESPN to work races next year sits on the table and waits. "I love working for ESPN," he said. "I have a blast with what I do there. We'll have to see. I'm not going to say that I'll never be back over here. I just don't know in what capacity."

For Richard Petty, Evernham hasn't done any consulting for the team or majority owner George Gillett since this past May.

The word from "top NASCAR officials" was that the fella, Hans-Joachim Stuck, was meeting with NASCAR's sanctioning body. Brian France, NASCAR's chairman, said this year that NASCAR would be totally cool with having more manufacturers come on board as long as it has at least one production plant in the U.S. VW is building one right now in Tennessee and should get rolling in 2011.

But now the Speed Channel is saying that the meeting had nothing to do with bringing VW to NASCAR but it was all about three of its brands --VW, Audi, and Lamborghini - getting into Grand-Am Road Racing, which is owned and operated by NASCAR.

Well, now the guy who won back-to-back Daytona 500s back in 1994 and 1995 is telling folks that he isn't retiring, according to Race 2 Win Radio. He apparently will think about it this winter but there is nothing certain just yet.

The No. 1 Chevy will reportedly have current Roush Family Racing driver McMurray behind the wheel and feature its main sponsorship from Bass Pro Shops. The 33-year-old McMurray replaces Martin Truex Jr., who has a new deal with Michael Waltrip Racing.

McMurray got his Sprint Cup start back in 2002, winning in only his second race, under Chip Ganassi so the whole thing kind of makes sense.

The 52-year-old Marlin has been behind the wheel for three decades and is saying he'll "probably" put his keys away once the race is over. "Will I miss it? Yeah, in some ways," Marlin said. "But in some ways I'll kinda be glad when it's over. The sport has changed. It's not much fun any more."

He's most famous for winning 9back-to-back Daytona 500 victories in 1994 and 1995.

Hendrick isn't sure she'll be in NASCAR at all next year, either: "I just think that they are not even close to making a decision on whether to even do it this year or next year," he said of Patrick and her IMG reps. "You never know until it's done. You never know until it's signed. And anybody can change their mind. When you get down to the nitty gritty of any deal, it's always complicated. There can always be someone who comes back and says `I can't do it because of this.'"

The rumor is that Patrick would actually be driving for JR Motorsports, which is owned by Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick wasn't saying a deal won't get done but that nobody should be assuming anything: "I think everything is an option, and it's just too early to really comment on it," he said.

But that's not all! There are other candidates. ESPN Insider is saying now that there are two other possibilities. David Gilliland will take a turn at the wheel this weekend at Phoenix and David Stremme will then drive No. 9 in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

If neither one of those guys can handle it, then Mears and Sorenson will get a closer look, according to the team's general manager, Mark Reno, who extremely understatedly said, "A lot of good candidates."

The team's engine shop is expected to close its doors today, according to FOXSports. RPM is keeping around enough folks to get it through the final two races of the year. After that, Roush Yates engines will be taking over the duties.

Obviously this is a result of the merger of Richard Petty Motorsports and Yates Racing. The Petty crew chiefs were apparently each told that they could keep 17 crew members for their teams. Two hundred of 250 employees are expected to lose their jobs.

The negotiations are supposedly "in the final phase" and it will mean that Patrick takes a NASCAR wheel for the first time when next February's Daytona 500 rolls around.

So she'll race full-time for Andretti Green Racing in IndyCar and part-time for JR in NASCAR. Both Earnhardt and Patrick have some sponsorship dollars from GoDaddy.com.

Sports Illustrated was reporting that Patrick was looking to snag $300,000 per race in NASCAR, no mater if it's Nationwide or Camping World Truck Series races. But it's not likely that she's getting that kind of dough.

Roush Fenway Racing is losing a car's worth of workers and Yates Racing does as well. Yates is actually rumored to be merging with Richard Petty Motorsports. So any way you slice it, two teams will not exist next season.

Also, the #96 Hall of Fame Racing team has been working with the use of services of Yates, which it apparently won't need next season, meaning more jobs could be lost.

It's not going to be pretty. But, then again, it's not pretty economically anywhere right now.

Chevy apparently can't offer EGR any kind of new deal, considering the financial predicament of the company. One theory on what's holding up the deal are that Teresa Earnhardt is leery of not going with an American company.

Richard Childress Racing currently supplies the engines for EGR and RCR apparently was expecting a call on Friday from EGR about what the plan is for next season. That call was never made.

Folks from EGR are expected to meet with Toyota reps today to further the conversation. But it remains to be seen if Toyota could even handle supplying engines for EGR along with Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull Racing. EGR has supposedly also had conversations with Joe Gibbs Racing about getting engines from them.