Joe Gibbs Racing wanted Tony Stewart to stick around. When it became apparent he wanted to leave to pursue ownership with a different team, they agreed to let him go.
“It was brought to a head between Tony and us and I think the farther we went with it and the more we talked about it, we just reached the conclusion it would probably be best under these circumstances to go ahead and let Tony pursue another option here and let him get started and let us get started” in a different direction, Joe Gibbs said
“The ideal situation is Tony drives for JGR, redoes the deal and retires here and we start a fourth car down the road,” J.D. Gibbs said. “That was our hope. ... It is discouraging for us. We hoped for him to finish out his career here. ... It just didn’t work out that way and we understand.”
Now Gibbs Racing moves on and it appears 18-year-old potential star Joey Logano might move on to the No. 20 car next season.
Still, Stewart sincerely believes that he and his yet-to-be-named second driver at Stewart-Haas (it’ll likely be Ryan Newman) will be successful next season. “I feel like we have the variables to be competitive right away,” Stewart says. “We know it’s a rebuilding process and there will be an adjustment period. How long will the adjustment period take? We don’t know. As long as we’re making forward progress, I think you have to take it a week at a time ... I can’t guarantee I’m [going to succeed], but if we don’t, we’re going to go down swinging.”
Stewart is currently riding a 32-race winless streak, which is another reason why I think he chose to leave JGR, the most impressive team in NASCAR this season. The 37-year-old Stewart, who’s 12th in the standings, is no longer the lead driver at JGR. In fact, you could argue that he’s not even the second driver in the food chain at Gibbs, that he’s fallen behind Kyle Busch (currently first in the points standings) and Denny Hamlin (seventh). Stewart has always hated to get beat, but he really hates to get beat by his teammates.
“Tony likes to be backed up against the wall and that’s when he usually does his best,” Greg Zipadelli (who’s been atop Stewart’s pit box for every race of Stewart’s 10-year Cup career, is staying at Gibbs ) says. “I think he’ll do a fine job.”
Jeff Gordon, who is ostensibly an owner-driver on the NASCAR Cup tour, with a stake, of some sort, in Jimmie Johnson’s team, said Tony Stewart’s decision to become an owner-driver, with Rick Hendrick providing engineering support and engines next season, is an interesting call.
Stewart seems glossy eyed over the prospect of becoming a NASCAR team owner. And he points to Richard Childress as a classic example of a driver-turned-owner.
“Well, no offense at Richard Childress,” Gordon said, “but there’s a big difference between Richard Childress and Tony Stewart as drivers. As owners, I think I would maybe compare the situation with Richard Petty: Here’s a guy who had a tremendous amount of success as a driver but also owned his equipment along the way.”
And then Gordon points out that was a decidedly different era: “That’s the difference. You’re talking about a different time, when guys owned cars and could drive the cars and compete and have fun.
“Well, this sport is far beyond that. It’s a big business. Those guys (like Childress) are probably recognized as better businessmen than they were race car drivers.
“Tony would be considered a much better driver than businessman…. and hopefully with this venture he’s going to prove he’s a good businessman as well.
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