When Mark Martin made the announcement recently that he was going to drive at Hendrick Motorsports, nobody was surprised. And that surprised Martin.
All of the negotiations between the driver and car owner Rick Hendrick were done through test messages. They weren't seen in public talking; they didn't involve others in the discussions.
And yet, like so many other deals, it proved to be one of the worst-kept secrets in NASCAR.
The only thing faster in NASCAR than the cars on the racetrack is the rumor mill. Few, if any, moves come as a surprise. The Internet and blogs have set traditional gossip into warp speed, turning contract talks into issues of security and privacy.
"I walked by Rick Hendrick earlier this year and said hello; the next thing I knew I was in line to get the ride in the 5 car,"
Greg Biffle said. "It's crazy. People see something and they let their imagination take over. Eventually, somebody gets it right. There are no secrets in this garage area any more."
Biffle was the focus of several scenarios this year. He was in the final year of his contract at Roush Fenway, and several "sources"
had him confirmed as moving to Hendrick, Richard Childress Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing.
"I kept reading I was going to replace Tony Stewart at Gibbs, I finally had to call them to see what was up,"
Biffle said. "They had intended to put Joey Logano in there all along. That certainly made the most sense."
In the end, Biffle re-signed with Roush Fenway.
While some find the Internet to be amusing, others find it distracting. Everything Stewart's done all year has been dissected and analyzed. Everyone expected him to leave Gibbs at the end of the year; everyone also knew he was buying into Haas CNC Racing. He recently hired Ryan Newman as the team's second driver, although it was reported nearly three weeks in advance.
"I'm like, are you kidding me?,"
Stewart said. "I don't know that anything I've done in the last eight months has been a secret."
"People that make false reports, people that are trying to get credit where credit isn't due, that's what upsets me,"
Newman said. "There's a right time, a right place to do things right. That doesn't happen when people want to stretch the truth. I'm surprised how many sources there are in this sport. There are a lot of people who know a lot of things and a lot of people who think they know a lot of things."
Ethics out the window
Kyle Petty started his Sprint Cup career in 1979 - long before the Internet and 24-hour news and sports networks started. As the communication business evolved, so did the business' code of ethics, he said.
"You find the newspaper reporters who've been around a long time are the ones who check their facts and get it right,"
he said. "The blog and the Internet are to our sport now what talk radio is to politics. People just voice their opinions and it doesn't matter if they have any merit, whether they have any credence. You just throw it out."
"Guys in newspapers have to check their facts. You're not on the opinion page. What people don't understand is most blogs and things like that are opinions and rumors. There has to be some credibility to what's in the paper and some accountability. There's a code of ethics in newspapers. There's not on the Internet."
While rumor sites often are right - eventually - they miss a lot of stories, too. It was widely reported earlier this year that Jamie McMurray was about to be fired at Roush Fenway. He still has his job - and a commitment from the team for the 2009 season.
"As long as you know the truth, that's all that matters,"
McMurray said. "When you read those stories, you try to figure out where it came from. As long as you know the truth, it's all right. If you thought you were going to lose your job, it would be very distracting. I knew what was going on so it didn't bug me. I think that people who think that way have corrupted minds with stuff that they do."
"There's a lot of money in this sport, a lot of fans. It's comical some times, but I tend to read what they say about everybody else, and I get a kick out of that."
Martin still is amazed that his secret got out early because he first had to learn how to text message before he started talking to Hendrick.
"The only way people found out early is they had to know how to read my text messages,"
he said. "How this stuff gets started is amazing. It's impossible to keep anything a secret."
What: Pepsi 500 (Race No. 25 of 36)
Where: Auto Club Speedway at Fontana, Calif.
When: 8 p.m. Sunday
Track dimensions: Two-mile D-shaped oval with 14-degree banking
Broadcast: Television - ESPN, 7 p.m.; Radio - Motor Racing Network, Sirius Satellite Radio 128, 6:15 p.m.
Race format: 200 laps
Last year's winner: Jimmie Johnson
Track schedule: Friday - practice, 3 p.m.; pole qualifying, 6:40 p.m. (Speed); Saturday - practice, 4 p.m.
