“We’re not ready to expand to a fourth team,’’ Stewart said. “Unfortunately, this will be the last year we have Ryan. That’s probably what’s made this a bittersweet day. I’m bringing in another of one of my friends to the organization, but I’m also … losing a friend at the end of the year to the organization."

Newman reiterated Stewart’s pledge that the two remain committed to a “great” friendship even if they won’t be working alongside one another anymore. That was also discussed at length when they spoke earlier in the week.

“I can’t say I’m happy with the way everything unfolded,’’ Newman said. “I know there are business decisions and sometimes business decisions trump friendships — and I don’t feel like that was the case.

“In the end, I’m happy with the three wins that I’ve had so far with Stewart-Haas and the performance of the cars and everything. There will be a change for me in 2014 and I don’t know what that change is.

“I do not know what my future holds. I have no idea right now. And I had no idea at this time last year. That’s something that weighs on my shoulders and I have a little homework to do right now.

“That’s part of racing and that’s part of the situation I’m in.”

Newman said he had not even spoken with other teams yet, despite the fact he always knew he was  “free agent” at the end of this season anyway. He had hoped to re-sign with Stewart-Haas, but said this week, the most important thing is finding a competitive situation with a team that really wants him.

“There are organizations out there that are capable of winning championships and capable of racing into the Chase to give themselves an opportunity at a championship,’’ Newman said. “It’s obvious that there are some seats that will be coming available.

“To me, I first and foremost want to be wanted for my ability behind the wheel as well as what I can do for the sponsors and it’s not easy out there right now. I want to be someplace where I’m wanted and have common goals of winning the championships.

“I’ve been really focused on this year and at this time of the season, the silly gets even sillier. You never know what becomes available.’’

Newman, whose No. 39 WIX Filters Chevy was among the fastest during practice Friday at New Hampshire, is ranked 16th going into Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 (1 p.m. ET, TNT) at the 1.058-mile oval. He’s only 17 points behind 10th place (Stewart) and a guaranteed position in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason.

And his eight top-10s — including one last week at Daytona — are best among the current Stewart-Haas Racing drivers, himself, Stewart and rookie Danica Patrick.

Newman, 35, conceded there will be a lot of elements to finding his place with a new organization. And Stewart was adamant he would “do everything I can to help Ryan anyway I can moving forward in his effort to find another team next year.’’

Added Stewart: “I’m behind him 100 percent, I believe in him 100 percent and I wish we were able to facilitate four teams at this time but we’re just not able to do that."

As for Newman, the only driver with a college engineering degree, he says it’s time to start doing “homework.”

“As an engineer we don’t like to use the word ‘cobble’ together, but it takes everything: a good team with the right resources, the financial side of it and a driver that can drive the rocket,’’ Newman said. “That’s part of the homework getting it all together and then you throw into that the right personalities and putting people together.

“I want to be competitive. I’m not going to go out there just go find a ride, I want to find a ride with someone who has the same goals and expectations as I do.’’

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Current Sprint Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson was just outside the lead quintet with the seventh-fastest lap. Defending race winner Kasey Kahne, his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, was 12th-fastest.
 
Juan Pablo Montoya’s Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team was forced to unload a backup No. 42 Chevrolet just five minutes into the session. Montoya walloped the outside wall and limped back to the garage with severe rear-end damage. He wound up 22nd on the speed chart.
 
The crash caused an approximately 15-minute delay while crews worked to repair the impact-absorbing SAFER barrier. The practice was briefly slowed on two other instances after the initial red flag, both for seeping water in the fourth-turn asphalt due to heavy rainfall leading up to the race weekend.
 
A final red flag flew with approximately 15 minutes left in the session when former New Hampshire winner Joe Nemechek spun exiting the second turn.
 
Because of the delays, NASCAR officials added five minutes to the original 90-minute schedule for first practice.
 
Morgan Shepherd, scheduled to become the oldest starter in the history of NASCAR’s top series at age 71, was the slowest driver in the 43-car field at 124.793 mph.
 
Coors Light Pole qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. ET (SPEED).

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The infraction didn’t appear to come as a complete surprise to Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus, who said the Hendrick Motorsports team had issues in pre-qualifying inspection. Those problems nearly kept Johnson off the track for qualifying altogether.

“We were able to get the car right, but it just wasn’t exactly right; we weren’t going to know (what the problem was) until after qualifying and we started tearing it apart,” Knaus said.

The problem, he said, was a “mis-assembly issue with the left-front, and that’s why the heights were so messed up when we were going through initial inspection. That came back to bite us there in the end.”

The team had to trim 1/16^th of an inch off a side skirt and make a minor weight change to the right-side of the car before Johnson was cleared to make his qualifying attempt. The changes meant an additional pass through inspection, and Johnson was already in the car when crew members pushed him off the scales and out onto pit road.

In addition to losing its No. 2 starting position, the team also won’t have one of the better pit box selections on pit road for Sunday’s race, something that Knaus said would hurt “tremendously.”

“But the good thing about Loudon (is) if you’ve got a good race car, you can pass.”

And the 48, he said, is good.

“The car is fast. The car is fine,” he said.

Pit stall selections are determined by qualifying position, with the fastest qualifiers allowed to make their pit selections first.

Knaus said he had no issues with the inspection process, adding that “NASCAR does a really good job of making sure the cars are right going through pre-qualifying inspection, and we knew there was something that wasn’t … right.

“We were able to get through, but then afterward the cars settled a little bit. … It takes a little bit for the cars to come up…. You really don’t have a lot of room for error and we just had a little error.”

 

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READ: Paint Scheme Preview: New Hampshire	READ: Driver Reports at the halfway point	READ: Power Rankings Week 18	READ: Complete coverage from New Hampshire, Iowa