sportsjabber.net

And now another piece of the Kahne-Hendrick-Martin-Stewart-Haas puzzle has been revealed. (Man, this is more complicated than the last season of “Lost”!) Conventional wisdom has had Kahne cooling his heels in 2011 in a Stewart-Haas ride while he waits for Mark Martin to vacate the 5.

Nice idea. Problem is, nobody told owner Tony Stewart about it.

“We don’t know anything about [Kahne to SHR],” Stewart said at a Friday press conference, his first since the Kahne announcement. “I don’t have answers to everybody’s questions … Nobody’s talked to me.”

That would seem to complicate things, wouldn’t it? That said, Stewart is completely open to the idea of a third team. “With the right opportunity, as long as we’re able to focus on my car and Ryan [Newman]‘s car — with the right driver and the right sponsor, we’re definitely interested.”

Kahne is absolutely the right driver, and it’d be tough to imagine a more “right” sponsor than Budweiser, if in fact Kahne (or whoever) can persuade Bud to leave Richard Petty Motorsports.

Tony’s own beer preferences won’t be an issue. When asked about a conflict with Budweiser because of his well-known affinity for Schlitz, Smoke simply rolled his eyes and said, “Can we get a real question, please?”

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