Stewart: Newman will attract key staff

Speaking at Michigan International Speedway, Stewart said he was impressed by Newman's approach to his offer, claiming money was far down the list of priorities for his fellow Indiana native when considering their proposal.

"We only had us out dating for about four straight days," Stewart joked about how easy it was to sign Newman.

"The thing that impressed me most about Ryan was he asked all the right questions from day one. The thing with Ryan is there was never, and we've still never spoken about a dollar in the contract.

"From day one the questions that he had for me were all about how are we going to win races, how we are going to win championships, how we are going to get the right people in place to do the right jobs."

Stewart said announcing Newman's role with the team is a step in the process of recruiting the kind of personnel they want to have in place for the start of the 2009 season. He says since the team was formally announced a few weeks ago they have enjoyed great attention from people wishing to join them.

"It's very important to Stewart-Haas Racing being able to announce that we've got Ryan onboard," said Stewart. "It's something that we've all been looking forward to since the day that we first spoke with him and (wife) Krissie about coming over here and joining the team. So we're just more excited to let everybody else know.

"We know what it's done for the organisation once we announced that I was coming over, the flood of personnel that have come over and wanted to join the team since we made that announcement has been huge and the addition of Ryan coming onboard I think it's going to make that list even grow larger."

The two-time Sprint Cup champion said they had hoped to have sponsors signed in time for Friday's announcement but stated they are still going through the process of signing a number of companies to split sponsorship of the car, just like Office Depot and Old Spice will share the space on his No. 14 entry next season.