Stewart-Haas to announce Army will sponsor No. 39

Another piece of the Stewart-Haas Racing puzzle will be fit into place Thursday when the race team will unveil the U.S. Army as primary sponsor of Ryan Newman's No. 39 car for next season, sources have confirmed to NASCAR.COM.

Ryan Newman

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The announcement is scheduled to be made at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Lowe's Motor Speedway, site of this weekend's Sprint Cup event. The Stewart-Haas organization now has both its Chevrolets sponsored for next season -- no small feat in this economy -- with Office Depot and Old Spice set to back the car of team co-owner Tony Stewart.

It's another setback for Dale Earnhardt Inc., which had the Army on its No. 8 car this season. DEI driver Paul Menard announced last week that he and his Menard's sponsorship would be moving to Yates Racing for the 2009 campaign.

But for Stewart, a two-time series champion who won Sunday's event at Talladega Superspeedway, it's another big step toward his debut as a Sprint Cup car owner.

"I'm really excited about having the opportunity to be hands-on and be a part of getting things going for next year and trying to get the key people hired right now and dealing with all the people at the shop that I haven't had a chance to work with yet," he said Monday on a conference call with reporters. "It's an exciting time for me. It's the busiest I've ever been in my life right now."