| Subject: this week's Backstretch |
Author:
Rick
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Monday, December 03, 06:16:28am
When Joe Gibbs Racing announced their intentions to move from Chevrolet to Toyota for the 2008 Sprint Cup season, they held a flashy press conference with the entire driver and crew chief team present. Everyone said all of the right things at that meeting: everyone except Tony Stewart. It’s not what Stewart said that wasn’t the ‘right thing.’ Rather, it’s what he didn’t say that was interesting.
Throughout the press conference, Stewart repeatedly went back to his Chevy roots. He said how proud he was to have driven for them and that he had no intentions of changing makes for his Outlaw teams. He said no matter what happened in Cup, his other teams would remain Chevrolets. I watched the entire conference at the time and I do not believe Stewart ever used the word ‘Toyota’ even though the entire point of the conference was to announce that brand as the car he would drive in the future.
The reason I bring this up now is twofold. First, on November 30 the Tampa Tribune announced that JGR was trying to get Stewart to sign an extension to his contract. Stewart is under contract through 2009 and Gibbs wants him locked in for a much longer period. On Thursday however, Stewart said he has no desire to talk to anyone about any such thing during the off-season. “It’s flattering they already want to do this and get it done and out of the way, but I’m taking this off-season off. I need it desperately,” he told the Tribune.
Now jump to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Awards Ceremony that was held in New York on Friday evening. Once again, people were saying all of the right things. But something strange happened when Tony Stewart got before the microphone. Stewart took the time to acknowledge the relationship he’s had with Chevrolet over the years but he did not mention his upcoming relationship with Toyota.
A few weeks ago I got a peek at the 2008 Camry done up in Tony Stewart’s Home Depot colors. Until the moment I saw the car I did not actually believe it would happen. As I looked at the car I came to the conclusion that yes indeed, Smoke will be in a Toyota. But now I’m not so sure.
I don’t think there’s much chance that he will be in anything except a Camry for the Daytona 500 and probably for the entire 2008 season. But I am almost willing to bet that it will be his last season in a JGR race car.
It seems unreasonable to me that a solid contender and a real champion would be satisfied driving a car that right now doesn’t even look capable of making every race.
“Let's go win at Daytona. That’s our philosophy,” Senior Vice President of Toyota Racing Development, Lee White said last week. “We expect to go to Daytona with a shot, not only at the big race but a couple of the qualifiers, maybe the shootout and maybe sit on the pole, too. Let's do it all.”
That’s really shooting for the moon. Heck, that’s shooting for the entire solar system, considering Michael Waltrip is so unsure of his teams that he isn’t letting David
Reutimann take over the 44 car until after the first five races of the season. Dale Jarrett is going to run them in case the cars are once again so bad that they need Jarrett’s past Champion’s Provisional to get them in the races. Things will really be interesting if all of the 2008 Toyotas are just as bad as the 2007 versions and Tony Stewart has to start using the 43rd starting spot. I can’t help but wonder how many of those provisionals Stewart would use before saying enough is enough and quits his job.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 