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With Gibbs going to Toyota, do you think it will affect their fan base? Even more importantly to me since I am a No. 20 fanatic, how do you think it will it differ from the current engine, chassis and body packages that they are running now?
If somebody were a true Joe Gibbs Racing fan, Tony Stewart fan, Denny Hamlin fan or, headed into next year, a Kyle Busch fan, I would hope that the make of automobile wouldn't have a bearing on it. If it does, then I wonder ‘were they a true fan of these drivers and this race team?'
I really applaud how Toyota has entered the sport. They are in their fourth year in the Craftsman Truck Series, and they've had their share of success. They won a championship as well as some races and poles. They've quietly entered Cup and Busch this season, not making a lot of noise or upsetting a lot of apple carts. It would have been very easy for them to come in last year and make a move for Joe Gibbs Racing, but they wanted to get their feet wet. They wanted the sport and the fan base to accept them and try to do the best job they could.
Have they struggled more than they anticipated? Probably. But now they've been accepted. We don't hear any noise about them anymore so they felt it was time to step up their program and make a move for Joe Gibbs Racing. It's a great move for Toyota, and it's a good move for Joe Gibbs Racing. Even though JGR has won races and championships with General Motors, they will always be the third or fourth spoke in the wheel, no matter how many races or championships they win. They will never leapfrog Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing nor Dale Earnhardt Inc., especially now that DEI has merged its engine operation with RCR.
From a chassis standpoint, the timing is pretty good. The Cup Series will run the Car of Tomorrow full-time next year. Every car's chassis, roll cage and body — with the exception of the nose, tail and quarter-window — will be the same, whether it's a restrictor plate car a road-course car, a Martinsville car, a Toyota, a Chevrolet, a Dodge or a Ford. It won't matter. Other than just rebodying some of their Cars of Tomorrow to take on the Toyota identity and building more Cars of Tomorrow — which I'm sure Joe Gibbs Racing was doing anyway — the chassis/car department isn't even going to know the organization made a change.
The challenge will be with engines. JGR's head engine builder, Mark Cronquist, told me they're in the middle of trying to win a championship with two different drivers. Plus, they would like to get the No. 18 car to Victory Lane before the end of the year. They're not going to take their eye off of 2007, but to be ready for 2008, they've got to start dotting their i's and crossing their t's with the Toyota engine. With JGR's resources and depth in their organization and the resources and depth with Toyota Racing Development, Cronquist doesn't foresee any issues. Even though the Toyota engine program is pretty solid, Joe Gibbs Racing will enhance Toyota power plants, which will benefit all operations.
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