Joe Gibbs Racing won't miss in this shift
Kyle Busch has mellowed -- in his feelings toward NASCAR's new racecar, at least.
Busch's attitude isn't the only thing that has changed at Joe Gibbs Racing this season. Busch himself is a new addition, fresh from two straight Chase appearances in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He joins Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin to form one of the most potent driver trios in the Sprint Cup garage.
The Chevys are gone from the Gibbs shop, too, having been replaced by Toyotas in one of the most widely publicized manufacturer changes in the history of NASCAR racing. And team founder Joe Gibbs has returned to the organization after a four-year stint coaching the Washington Redskins. His steadying influence will help smooth some of the rough edges that surfaced during Busch's mercurial tenure at Hendrick.
Remember, Busch is the same guy who won the first race featuring what was then called the Car of Tomorrow. After climbing from his Chevy Impala SS in victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway last March, Busch christened the car that achieved the milestone win with the words "It still (stinks)."
As it has become clear that the new racecar has eased Gibbs' transition from Chevrolet to Toyota, Busch's opinion of the car has changed.
"It's been a work in progress since we raced it last year at the short tracks and the mile tracks and stuff like that," Busch said during a January test in Las Vegas. "It's gotten better. We've just been making progress on it here, making it a lot better. It tends to have a little bit less grip than what the other car did, but it still sticks pretty well through the corner."
Coming from Busch, that's a rave review.
Lured by the opportunity to be the flagship team for the Japanese carmaker, Gibbs decided to jump to the Toyota camp. Stewart says the move was made easier by the incorporation of NASCAR's new car -- rear wing, front splitter and all -- as the full-time racecar for the Sprint Cup Series.
"Obviously, with the change to being the COT cars all year, if this change (to Toyota) would have happened two years ago vs. this year, it would have been a lot more dramatic change for all of us," Stewart says. "But, really, it's just a power plant and some stickers, so that should make the change a lot easier for us. It's the right timing."
Indeed. During preseason testing with restrictor plate engines, the Gibbs Toyotas were consistently fast. At testing with open motors at Las Vegas, Busch topped the speed chart during one of the sessions. Hamlin was fastest during the opening test session at California Speedway last week.
Concurrent with the signing of Gibbs last year, Toyota, in the midst of a disastrous season, stepped up its research and development efforts, all but ensuring that Gibbs will maintain the competitive level that has carried the organization to three Cup championships in the past eight years. In fact, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) began focusing on its restrictor plate engines last June.
"They were working on that plate engine as soon as the rules started coming out," says Gibbs engine builder Mark Cronquist. "(Toyota) didn't have a car in the Chase or anything, so they had a lot of people working on that engine quicker.
"The rest of us all were worrying about Chase races and worrying about this and worrying about that. They definitely got to work on it more than anybody else did."
Gibbs' return is another key element. In addition to keeping his "brat pack" of drivers out of trouble, Gibbs also carries a big stick in the financial world. Back in 1992, it was Gibbs who persuaded Interstate Batteries CEO Norm Miller to take a flier on a race team that was barely more than an idea on paper.
Sixteen years later, Interstate Batteries still sponsors the No. 18 car, though in a diminished role, thanks to the addition of M&Ms as primary sponsor for 30 of the 36 points races.
With solid backing and a roster of drivers talented enough to give Hendrick's thoroughbreds a run for their money, Joe Gibbs Racing won't miss a beat in 2008.
And the switch to Toyota may prove to be more of a launching pad than a speed bump
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