The negotiations are supposedly "in the final phase" and it will mean that Patrick takes a NASCAR wheel for the first time when next February's Daytona 500 rolls around.

So she'll race full-time for Andretti Green Racing in IndyCar and part-time for JR in NASCAR. Both Earnhardt and Patrick have some sponsorship dollars from GoDaddy.com.

Sports Illustrated was reporting that Patrick was looking to snag $300,000 per race in NASCAR, no mater if it's Nationwide or Camping World Truck Series races. But it's not likely that she's getting that kind of dough.

Roush Fenway Racing is losing a car's worth of workers and Yates Racing does as well. Yates is actually rumored to be merging with Richard Petty Motorsports. So any way you slice it, two teams will not exist next season.

Also, the #96 Hall of Fame Racing team has been working with the use of services of Yates, which it apparently won't need next season, meaning more jobs could be lost.

It's not going to be pretty. But, then again, it's not pretty economically anywhere right now.

Chevy apparently can't offer EGR any kind of new deal, considering the financial predicament of the company. One theory on what's holding up the deal are that Teresa Earnhardt is leery of not going with an American company.

Richard Childress Racing currently supplies the engines for EGR and RCR apparently was expecting a call on Friday from EGR about what the plan is for next season. That call was never made.

Folks from EGR are expected to meet with Toyota reps today to further the conversation. But it remains to be seen if Toyota could even handle supplying engines for EGR along with Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull Racing. EGR has supposedly also had conversations with Joe Gibbs Racing about getting engines from them.

Gordon, who owns and drives the No. 7 Toyota, is apparently considering starting up another team in 2010 and Labonte would be easier to get sponsorship for than many other potential drivers.

Meanwhile, Labonte's brother Terry, who is a semi-retired driver, is still trying to team up with former team owner Bill Savola to make a new racing team in NASCAR that will start its engines in 2010. The team will be called StavolaLabonte Racing, naturally, and appear in the Sprint Cup Series, which the 52-year-old Labonte won way back in 1984 and 1996.

The hope is apparently to run eight to ten races next year, according to SceneDaily. "(Stavola) would be a good guy to be associated with," Labonte told SceneDaily. "We're kind of kicking around the idea. On the one hand, it's the perfect time to get in because you would be able to hire people today that you would not have had a chance two years ago. On the other side of the coin, I've never seen it so hard on the sponsorship side."

The 24-year-old Busch recently excited the folks in Formula 1 by saying that he wouldn't immediately say no to Formula One. His idea is that he'd win a championship in NASCAR in the next few years and then take a few years in Formula One. And there's no reason to think he won't. After all, the guy has won 58 races in NASCAR: 16 wins in the Sprint Cup, 28 in Nationwide, 14 in Camping World Trucks.

Still, the guy's contract with Joe Gibbs Racing doesn't run out till the end of next season and there's really no reason to think he's going to skip out to F1 just yet. But the U.S. team will certainly do everything it can to convince Busch.

McMurray is supposedly close to signing a deal that would have him driving the No. 1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevy next year. The 33-year-old currently drives for Roush Fenway Racing, driving the No. 26 Crown Royal/Irwin Industrial Tools Ford, and has had six top-10 finishes over the years.

McMurray is probably best remembered for winning the 2002 UAW-GM Quality 500 as a substitute driver in his second Winston Cup start.

Driver Kevin Harvick's contract comes due at the end of next year and looks like the team is fully expecting to lose him, according to SceneDaily. "We're using these last races to get prepared for 2010. We know we have to be better," owner Richard Childress said.

But one of those plans may be to lose car No. 7 due to a lack of sponsorship since Jack Daniel's doesn't want to be that involved in NASCAR at this point. This leaves driver Casey Mears without a sponsor for next season. "Right now we're meeting with companies. We've had several meetings," Childress said. "We've got interest in it. We're wanting to run it." The car apparently has some sponsorship for some races next year but not enough to run the full schedule.

But that leaves a very important open slot that Burton says will be filled very soon, according to Jayski.com. "We're real close," Burton said. "I don't have a definite date but we're real close to having all that figured out. There's a lot of things that are changing at RCR. There's a new way of doing business going into next year."