Candidates for the third Stewart-Haas car

July 1, 9:06 PMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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Stewart-Haas Racing has enjoyed so much success in 2009 that they may be ready to add a third team Photo:Getty Images

It is not news that the folks over at Stewart-Haas racing, smoke himself included, are thinking about adding a third entry for the team in 2010. While it seems that the SHR team is strong enough for a third team, but the question then becomes who will drive the third entry?

By taking a look at the news, and trends reported by Jayski, Autoracingsport.com, and my other fellow NASCAR examiners; both nationally and in Atlanta and Louisville, we come up with three possible candidates. Two of the three seem more likely than the third.

The first candidate is most likely Brad Keslowski, he won a Cup race earlier this year and wants to compete in both the Cup and Nationwide series full time next year. Since Hendrick doesn’t have room for him on his roster Keslowski will have to break in with one of the Hendrick affiliated teams. That means if Keslowski is in the cup series in 2010 he either will drive the third SHR car, or pilot a JR Motor Sports Cup entry.

At this point it is even money for which road Keslowski will eventually end up on.

Once Hendrick and the powers that be have decided where Keslowski will run in 2010 then we can talk about other possible candidates for the third SHR car. The top of this list has got to be Kevin Harvick. 2010 is the last year of Harvick’s deal with Richard Childress Racing, but NASCA contract are more written in sand then they are in concrete.

It seems very likely that Harvick will lose his Shell Pennzoil sponsorship at RCR, and more importantly he career has run its course there. Sometimes in NASCAR drivers and teams become stale and changes must be made, it seems that is the next logical step for both RCR and Harvick personally.

Harvick has driven there for the last eight seasons; after being rushed into a cup role following the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. While Harvick is far from being washed up a fresh start on a new team could be just the thing his career as a driver could use.

Since Harvick and Stewart are friends who have a long history of teaming up on other NASCAR related projects it seems likely that Harvick would be a natural fit at SHR. Of course Harvick could follow Tony’s lead and team up with someone else and bring is KHI Truck and Nationwide series organization into the Cup series.

The next candidate is something of a long shot, and may things would have to happen for it to come to pass. It seems more and more likely that Danica Patrick is going to be coming to NASCAR in 2010. If that happens Roush Fenway has offered her a ride in the Nationwide series, while Hendrick has offered her a cup ride. If that were to happen one of the four Hendrick drivers would have to move to a new team.

Due to his popularity Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be the easiest driver to move to a new team since sponsorship would be fairly easy to obtain or transfer. While there is a stronger possibility that under this scenario that Jr would move to his own team with Keslowski s a teammate, the friendship and restrictor plate team work Stewart and Junior have shared over the few years raises the question if Junior would be a great fit at the third team for SHR.

There is one other factor to this argument, in today’s NASCAR smaller operations are all the rage. Would it make more sense for Hendrick to develop one really strong affiliate with SHR or keep building up SHR and try to build up a JR motor Sports Cup entry at the same time?

In essence it is that question that will ultimately decide who drives where for the Hendrick affiliate teams in 2010.