Wallace: Penske, Newman split maybe not so 'mutual' (cont'd)

Penske was not at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, and could not be reached for comment. Newman -- who was not part of the Stewart-Haas Racing car unveiling held Friday, and said he has yet to sign a contract with anyone for 2009 and beyond -- said his former teammate was just flat wrong.

"I don't know what Rusty's grounds are, what he's trying to prove by saying that," Newman said. "That wasn't the case, point blank. Roger and I decided mutually to not continue, and it was more my decision than it was his, I would say. I said our goals didn't align, and for that reason and that reason alone we decided not to continue through 2008."

Wallace emphasized that he hasn't been in the loop at Penske since he retired as a driver, but he said he does speak to Penske at least twice a week. And comments made last week by Penske Racing president Tim Cindric seem to back up Wallace's assertion that the "mutual separation" might have been more the decision of the team than the driver.

"There's a point where there's a decision that has to be made," Cindric told NASCAR.COM on July 15. "Our first choice was to keep Ryan on board with us, but you can't draw it out forever. There's going to be a point where we either have to decide whether we're in or we're out, and obviously today was the day to part ways."

Besides, Wallace added, Penske has done something like this before. "Jeremy Mayfield said, 'Every time I get in this car, it's junk,'" Wallace said, referring to the driver who competed for Penske until 2001. "[Penske] said, 'Well, you know what, you need to go find another job.' That was it. He was very, very upset with Ryan Newman."

Such assertions seemed to baffle Newman. "Was [Wallace] conscious when he said it?" he asked. The claim that he was fired is "not true," Newman added. "It doesn't matter to me. I know Rusty and his personalities -- plural -- and everybody is different."

So did Penske really bristle at Newman's criticisms? "Nobody likes to be criticized as a driver, and nobody likes to be criticized as an owner," Newman said. "Constructive criticism isn't part of what I have to do as a driver. If I don't feel like I have good equipment or as good equipment as the guy that's ahead of me, then I speak up. That's a racer. That's just the way it is. You have to be able to stomach a percentage of that whether you're a car owner, crew chief, or a guy changing the tires. That's part of it. I'd expect the same the thing in return."

Also:
• Penske makes decision to part ways with Newman