The team plans to run the full races it enters, instead of starting and parking.

Speed said:

You can make more money doing (start-and-parks), for sure, but that’s not what Bob wants to do. We want to be professional about it. We’re going to look good, we’re going to have all of our stuff right and represent our brand and what we’re doing the right way and not just be another start-and-park team.

The team will field cars and engines purchased from Roush Fenway Racing. They do not plan to buy a superspeedway car, but they will buy a road course car because they feel they have a better chance at doing well in races that are more within their control.

Team owner Bob Leavine said:

We are pleased to have Scott Speed join our team. We, as a team, want to give Scott the equipment and the resources he needs to win – and that is what I believe he will do for us in return. Scott is a proven driver. He was the first American to race in Formula One since Michael Andretti and has a lot to offer our program as a teammate and a competitor.

Speed added:

I am excited to team up with Bob Leavine and his guys at Leavine Family Racing. They have a solid group of guys working on the team and I think it will be a real fun deal. Our goal is to build this race team to become competitive. We know it will be baby steps, but we are all excited to get it rolling.

Speed is in his fifth NASCAR season, having driven for Red Bull Racing, Max Q Motorsports, and Whitney Motorsports.

Travis Kvapil, who normally drives the No. 38, will move to FRM’s No. 55 entry, the car Yeley normally drives, for the race.

Yeley started the season driving for Whitney Motorsports in the No. 46 Chevy. He filled in for Kvapil in the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway while Kvapil drove in the Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway.

Two races later, he drove the No. 55 for FRM.

Erik Darnell replaced Yeley in WMS’s No. 46 car at NHMS. He also drove in the Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono Raceway for Whitney.  At Watkins Glen International, Yeley was back in the No. 46.

The following week, Yeley drove the no. 55 again. WMS announced that Scott Speed would drive their No. 46 for the remainder of the season.

Yeley has made 19 starts this season; he has an average finish of 40th.

The team also announced via its Facebook page that it has secured sponsorship for the AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

This weekend will mark Speed’s first start in the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season. Speed ran two seasons for Red Bull Racing. In 76 starts, Speed has one top 5 and three top 10’s.

Speed has two starts in the Brickyard 400, with a best finish of 25th in 2010. Speed thanked his fans on his Twitter page by saying, “Really appreciate all the love and support from everyone! Feels great to be going back to the races and look forward to this new challenge.”

Speed is currently in the midst of a lawsuit against RBR for $6.5 million for breach of contract. At the beginning of the month, Speed obtained an order of attachment against RBR, which meant a lein has been placed on their race shop.

Speed filed a motion for the attachment because RBR has said that they are going to leave the sport at season’s end. Essentially, a plantiff (in this case Speed) can seek an attachment if they believe that the person or entity they are suing (in this case RBR) is planning of packing up and leaving the state. The attachment prevents the defendant from removing or disposing of the property before the plaintiff can win the action and collect on the judgment.

RBR can contest the action, but they have yet to do so and have not commented.

A discovery motion in Speed’s case is scheduled to be heard on July 11 in Iredell County Superior Court in Statesville, N.C.

[T]oday should be the day my lawyer files this lawsuit against Red Bull…Had to tell my loyal twitter followers before they saw it online.

According to Speed, he was notified via fax at the end of the November that he was released. Speed said:

I’m obviously stupid disappointed that I didn’t even get a phone call, not a conversation, not anything from anyone from Austria. They all showed up at Miami. None of them spoke a word to me. I got a fax. … They thought it was OK to kick me to the curb and not try to do absolutely anything for me.

While he would not discuss specifics, Speed did say that he had a contract from RBR for 2011.

Speed is currently looking for a red next season. He would like to remain in stock cars, including a competitive Nationwide or Camping World Truck Series team.

There was a small chance that the team would retain Speed, if Brian Vickers, who plans to return after being sidelined by blood clots, experienced complications during his recovery and was unable to return.

RBR General Manager Jay Frye said before the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway that no complications were expected. This left Speed the odd man out.

RBR later confirmed the move. The team issued a statement that said:

We have exercised our rights to end the relationship at the end of 2010. We wish Scott the best of luck in his career. 

In 2008, Speed made his Cup debut driving for RBR. He drove the final five races of the season, posting a high finish of 16th at Homestead.

In 2009, he started 35 of 36 races.After failing to qualify at Darlington Raceway and Infineon Raceway, he competed in Joe Nemechek’s NEMCO Toyota. He did not qualify for or compete in the 2009 Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. He finished out the season with one top 5 in 35 starts, and finished 35th in driver’s points.

But, he finished 36th in owner’s points, meaning he would have to qualify for the first five races in 2010.

He qualifed for the first five events, posting one top 10 and three top 20s. Despite working his way back into the guaranteed starting spots, he managed only one more top 10 in the remaining 31 races.

Speed has one Camping World Truck Series win and three ARCA/REMAX Series wins to his credit.

Almirola was slated to drive Red Bull Racing’s No. 83 Toyota at Martinsville, but it appears Kahne will move over to that ride for the final five races of the season, giving him an early start to work with his 2011 team.

The move is believed to be the result of Kahne’s recent frustration with the team’s inability to finish races — particularly suffering brake failures in two of the last three events — and the comments he made afterwards.

In last weekend’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kahne wrecked because, he said, his brakes failed. After the car was repaired Kahne, who was feeling ill, said he wasn’t well enough to get back in the car. JJ Yeley finished the race.

He called the break issues ”a mess” and a “joke.” An RPM team member told him he needed to do his part. Kahne said:

I was told that I need to start doing my part. I can’t control the issues I’ve had this year. I don’t know how many parts I’ve broke, how many shifter handles, control arms, blowers, brakes. If I really thought about it, I could come up with all kinds of stuff. You can’t control that as a driver. I’m doing my part. I just need the car. I work as hard as anybody out there.

Kahne’s decision not to get in the car and his comments led some to speculate that he was quitting on his team, and wasn’t willing to fight through adversity. Apparently, RPM officials agreed.

RPM Vice President Robbie Loomis said:

When you know that [you’re leaving] is in the back of your mind, it gets harder and harder when you’re having adversity to fight through it. When he gets over there [at Hendrick] with being around Jeff [Gordon] and Jimmie [Johnson], he’ll get to learn a lot through them and how they deal and fight with adversity, too. It was disheartening for all of us. We felt so good going into the race.

As a result, Kahne was released early.

Kahne is slated to drive RBR’s No. 83 Sprint Cup Toyota next season, while he waits for Mark Martin to finish his final season in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Chevy,  Kahne’s 2012 ride. The move will put him in that car five races early.

The driver lineup for RPM’s No. 9 beyond Martinsville is not set. Marcos Ambrose is signed to drive that car next season. He could ask to be released from JTG Daughtery Racing to get a head start, which would open the No. 47 Toyota up for Bobby Labonte, who is slated to replace Ambrose in that car next season. That would leave James Finch, owner of Phoenix Racing’s No. 09 Chevy that Labonte drives, looking for a driver.

Update: Jenna Fryer, who wrote the AP story breaking the news of Kahne’s release, tweeted that Kahne will run the No. 83 RBR Toyota for the remaining five races this year. He will move over to the No. 82 next season, which will become the No. 4.

RBR will be a two-car team, meaning Kahne will team up with Brian Vickers, who is returning to the series, next season, leaving Scott Speed without a ride.

Update 2: Nate Ryan of USA Today tweeted that Tad Geschickter, of JTG Daugherty Racing, said that the plan is to keep Marcos Ambrose in the No. 47 for the remainder of this season. The Sporting News added that Geschickter confirmed that Ambrose asked for an early release. But, current sponsor and promotional obligations prevented that request from being granted.

Update 3: Two sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Kasey Kahne will replace Scott Speed in the No. 82 Toyota next season. With Kenny Francis coming with him, it looks like Jimmy Elledge is likely the odd crew chief out at RBR. Robin Pemberton, current crew chief for Speed, will likely move back to Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Toyota.

For HMS, it’s pretty obvious: they couldn’t let Kahne miss a year, nor could they afford to put him on a team without the resources to field a competitive car consistently. Stewart Haas Racing probably made the most sense from that standpoint. SHR is a competitive team with Hendrick affiliation.

But, any deal with SHR would have been contingent on HMS finding sponsorship for Kahne. For a driver with the marketability and driving talent of Kahne, that shouldn’t have been too hard. But, in today’s economic climate, finding sponsorship for any driver is no easy task. And, when you add in the deadline given by SHR (about two months after Kahne’s signing), there was no realistic way for them to get a deal done in time. (I don’t think a sponsor would sign on with Kahne without knowing what team he’d be driving for.)

I also can’t imagine SHR expanding to three teams before Tony Stewart feels comfortable with the idea. Stewart has maintained that his organization would not expand in 2011. With Old Spice leaving the team at season’s end, and Ryan Newman’s car looking for sponsorship to fill out the 2011 season, Stewart had to make securing sponsorship for his existing cars a priority. And, what sense does it make to expand to three cars when you don’t have two fully sponsored?

Once SHR was eliminated from the equation, there weren’t very many options left. Phoenix Racing was the only other Hendrick-affiliated team out there. But, rumors of the team shutting down at the end of the season probably hurt their chances of landing Kahne. It also may have been hard to secure sponsorship without a guarantee that the car would be competitive.

Unable to get Kahne into a Hendrick-affiliated car, HMS had no choice but to look elsewhere. The only competitive team with a potential vacancy was Red Bull Racing. So, they weighed the options and determined that RBR was the best place for Kahne. RBR is relatively competitive – or they were with Brian Vickers – and they have a short team need that coincides well with Kahne’s short term availability. They also had a fully sponsored ride available.

HMS also didn’t have to force Mark Martin — a fan favorite — out of the car. They could honor his contract and keep him relatively happy for the rest of the season.

For Red Bull Racing, the deal makes sense. They don’t know for sure if Brian Vickers will be back, and they have a decision to make on Scott Speed. With two potential vacancies and a limited number of drivers available next season, they weren’t likely to find a driver better than Kahne. So, with an opportunity to land him – if even for one year – they had to take it.

Kahne knows what it takes to win and be a winning team. RBR wants Kahne to help get their program back on track. They hope that he can provide insight into what the team needs to do be a winner. They want him to essentially tell them what they’re doing wrong.

Back when the team had AJ Allmendinger, they brought in Mike Skinner to fill in for five races or so to point out flaws in the team and help them improve. They’re hoping Kahne can do the same thing, and they think that an entire season should be plenty of time for him to help turn them around. By signing Kahne, they’re not only hoping to improve on the track, but off of it as well.

For his part, Kahne gets to drive a competitive car – or at least a car that is more competitive than the other options out there. He also gets to have fun. When he heads over to HMS in 2012, there will be high expectations, and the pressure to perform. At RBR there is virtually no pressure.

RBR is struggling, and seems to have taken a step back. If Kahne posts top 15 finishes, that would be considered an improvement. And, considering that the team is not expected to seriously contend for a championship, he can race without the burden of worrying about points. He may need to worry about staying in the top 35 in points, at least at the beginning of the season, if the team falls out by season’s end. But, he won’t need to worry about making the Chase.

That’s not to say that he will not try to make the Chase. I think he’ll try. But if he doesn’t, it’s not a big deal because he’s gone at the end of the season.

I also suspect that Kahne will be looking at RBR’s Toyotas to see if there’s anything he can bring back to HMS that might help them be more competitive in 2012. I’m not saying that RBR is at the forefront of cutting edge technology and processes, but if they are doing something that gives them an advantage, I’m sure Kahne will bring that to HMS in 2012.

I can’t imagine that RBR didn’t think of that. But, it seems that they’re willing to risk it in exchange for Kahne’s insights and driving ability. To them, it may be a small price to pay.

All in all, the deal seems to make sense for all of those involved.