| Written by Charlie Turner |
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Posted on 12/13/2007 2:01:05 PM |
The 2007 season’s single most significant move in NASCAR was not Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s super-hyped switch from DEI to the Hendrick Motorsports super-team. It was not the merger of sports business mega-players Jack Roush Racing and the Fenway group, nor the similar combination of Ray Evernham and George Gillette. Any one of the three might, in most seasons, be the top story.
The first involves the move of NASCAR’s biggest name to the sport’s most successful organization – think Alex Rodriguez going to the Yankees. Junior’s move would be the pick of the mainstream media as the BIG STORY, for sure. The merger stories are more significant to the bedrock of the sport, and could, if successful, show the way that NASCAR’s business model evolves into the next decade.
Nevertheless, when Joe Gibbs Racing, Chevrolet’s #2 team, announced that they were leaving the “Bow Tie Bunch” and moving to NASCAR’s newest player Toyota for 2008, they made the kind of move that dynasties are formed from.
Toyota’s inaugural season in Nextel Cup crashed at Daytona, along with their nominal lead team, Michael Waltrip Racing. The remainder of 2007 was a series of struggles just to qualify for races by all of the Toyota entries.
Casual observers wondered what the Gibbs were smoking that would make them switch from the dominant Monte Carlos to the, apparently, inferior Camry. But the Gibbs were not puffing on anything – they were watching and listening to what Toyota has committed to the future of their Cup program. No manufacturer will out-spend Toyota when it comes to NASCAR.
Joe Gibbs Racing is a three-time Nextel Cup Championship winning organization. They employ two-time Cup Champ Tony Stewart, 2006 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year Denny Hamlin, and newly signed – away from Hendrick – Kyle Busch, a four-time race winner and 2005 Rookie of the Year. All three were qualifiers for the 2007 Chase to the Nextel Cup.
Toyota competed in the 2007 Nextel Cup with two brand new startup teams – Waltrip’s three-car team and the two-car Red Bull organization – and the veteran Bill Davis Racing team. Of the seven drivers employed by the three teams, only 1999 Cup Champ Dale Jarrett had experienced big-time success in his career. Waltrip, Jeremy Mayfield and Brian Vickers had won races in the Cup, but not many. Most importantly, only Jarrett was assured of starting early races, due to his six “past champions provisional” free passes. All of the rest would have to battle – mostly among themselves – for one of the eight available starting spots each week. That did not bode well for Toyota.
2008 will be different. The three Gibbs drivers will all start at Daytona, as will Bill Davis Racing’s Dave Blaney. They are all in the top 35 in owners points for the first six races, and there are reasons to think that the other Toyota teams have improved as well.
The big story though, is the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing crew. These guys are used to running up front – running for wins. Denny Hamlin probably feels that he has something to prove after a sub-par Chase performance. Kyle Busch will prefer those “success on the track” answers to the question of why he left the consensus “best team in NASCAR” for a Toyota ride. And Tony Stewart is on a contract year. Chevy wants him back, and he is playing the negotiating chip for all it’s worth. Winning races for Toyota will drive the contract numbers to the stratosphere.
With 17-year-old phenom Joey Logano on the horizon for Gibbs’ fourth car, Toyota is set to ride the Joe Gibbs Racing team to it’s first Cup win. Championships are sure to follow.
Check out more commentary and analysis from Charlie Turner at the On Pit Row blog. |
