Where's the silliness?

Kevin Harvick is going to drive for Tony Stewart next year. No, wait, he's actually going to Red Bull.

What's Richard Childress shouting from the rooftops? Harvick is staying put through 2010?

Well, so much for all of the excitement of "Silly Season."

After Childress made his intentions clear with Harvick, it assured a rather quiet time for driver movement.

The last "big" move was completed this week, when the future of Hendrick Motorsports, Brad Keselowski, left NASCAR's top team to drive for Roger Penske. Rick Hendrick was sold on Keselowski, but he couldn't find any room to keep the kid who he believes will contend for championships over the next decade.

Hendrick's hands were tied by Mark Martin, who, in case you haven't heard, is "having a blast" driving the No. 5 car. Martin wasn't ready to share his seat with Keselowski next season, and it's not like Hendrick could have told him no. Martin is winning races, and assuming he hangs inside the top 12 for two more weeks, he should contend for the Sprint Cup title when the Chase for the Championship begins.

So Keselowski is off to Penske Racing, which has a whopping 22 championships, not one of which is in NASCAR.

"There are very few teams that have the resources that can compete with Hendrick Motorsports, and this is one of them," Keselowski said. "I want to be the guy who comes to Penske Racing and gives them their first NASCAR championship. For everything they've accomplished, that's the one thing that's been missing."

The signing wasn't all that surprising when you consider that Keselowski had been offered the No. 12 a year earlier, though he turned it down to wait out Martin at HMS. With no assurances that a seat would be open for him in 2011, and with no real Cup opportunities that would have kept him under the Hendrick umbrella, Penske was probably the best option for Keselowski.

Elsewhere, there was a bit of drama with the drawn-out contract talks between Brian Vickers and Red Bull. Still, it's not like anyone believed Vickers would actually leave the team. Remember, he asked to leave Hendrick three years earlier for the opportunity to be the face of a new team.

Finally on the cusp of success and thriving in the "Red Bull lifestyle," Vickers just wanted to get a deal done. Since Red Bull seemed content with him, smoothing things over was all it took to get the contract extension, which was announced Aug. 18.

Then there was Martin Truex Jr., who clearly wasn't going to stay at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing past this season. Aside from winning the Daytona 500 pole, his performance was pretty bad early in the season, setting the stage for an early decision.

It was practically made for him in April, when Michael Waltrip Racing signed his 17-year-old brother to a developmental contract, essentially opening the door for Truex to make it a family affair.

Waltrip had said before the season that if he couldn't keep up with teammate David Reutimann, he'd have to scale back his racing for the overall good of his team. Well, he can't keep up with Reutimann, and sponsor NAPA wanted a winner. With so few names on the market – remember, when MWR started looking, Truex, Vickers and Jamie McMurray were the only three guys really on the market – pursuing Truex was the best bet.

It meant a sizable pay cut for Truex, who was grossly overpaid by Dale Earnhardt Inc. when he was given an extension to remain with the team through the merger with Chip Ganassi, but it made sense and it was easy, and it was practically wrapped up by May.

So that leaves McMurray as the next domino to fall. I know, I know, everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what will happen.

His choices? Well, I don't see any beyond a return to Ganassi.

He can't stay at Roush Fenway Racing, which has to drop a team at the end of the season to meet NASCAR's four-car mandate. That was always going to be McMurray, the only one of the five Roush drivers in a contract year.

When Matt Kenseth's longtime sponsor said it was leaving at the end of the year, and Roush's reaction was to snatch McMurray's sponsor as the replacement, well, that was nail in the coffin.

There's still Yates Racing, the underfunded affiliate of RFR, but co-owner Max Jones told me this week that he doesn't have the sponsorship to sign McMurray.

"We'd love to have him, but it doesn't make any sense to run him in a white car for five races next year and hope we can put a deal together," Jones said. "Jamie has got to explore all his options and do what's best for him, and right now, he's the only person who can answer those questions."

It seems rather obvious that the answer is Ganassi, who gave McMurray his best years in NASCAR.

McMurray twice contended for a spot in the Chase in 2004 and 2005, when it was still a 10-driver field, though he fell just short both times. He was at RFR the following season, and he's yet to contend the way Roush had hoped.

So now, I guess, we wait for McMurray to go back to Ganassi, where he can share a small pond with Juan Pablo Montoya and maybe run at the same pace as the Chase contender. Being a small fish in the big Roush pond hasn't worked, so McMurray should return to his roots. After learning the hard way that the grass isn't always greener, McMurray can get back just in time to help Ganassi continue an upward climb.

When that happens, what do we do?

Wait and see if David Stremme lands a ride? Lament the lack of a true Silly Season?

It's OK, actually, because next year could be a doozy.

Harvick's contract is up at the end of 2010. So are the contracts of Reutimann, Martin, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon.

Let the bidding begin. And soon, please.

As distasteful as it was when McMurray and Kurt Busch signed with new teams a full year in advance, their early deals at least made things interesting. It put the squeeze on their old bosses to work out an early release and made everyone wait and wonder to see what would happen next.

Harvick has the ability to get the ball rolling soon – although Childress is keeping him through the final year of his contract. Harvick doesn't have to wait until next season to announce what he'll be doing in 2011.

By then, finally, we might have something to get excited about.