Stewart may leave Gibbs in '09

Could Tony Stewart be driving the No. 66 Home Depot Chevy next season? Sounds farfetched, but ESPN.com is reporting Stewart recently spoke to Joe Gibbs Racing officials about buying out the final year of his contract. Apparently he has expressed interest in purchasing the floundering Haas/CNC Racing team that fields two cars.

Just when the NASCAR season was starting to get a little dry, good ole Tony throws a wrench in there to spice things up. Gotta hate ‘em. Gotta love ‘em. It’s great that he’s exploring his options, except for the fact that leaving Gibbs would likely be career suicide. But we’ve known for a while that Tony does what he wants. Consequences be damned.

Things seemed to be running smoothly this year for Gibbs, although Stewart still is winless. Gibbs made waves in the off-season when he switched to Toyota, but Stewart appeared to care little and said as much.

Stewart’s contract runs through 2009, but he apparently is asking to be released a year early. One Gibbs officials is quoted that the team expects him to honor the contract. But as we’ve seen in many other sports, the employee usually finds a way to slither out the door by making everyone around him unhappy. And I’m sure Stewart – notorious for expressing displeasure on the track – will let his bosses know how he feels for the rest of this year.