Two of the top three owners in Chevrolet expect Joe Gibbs Racing to move to Toyota in 2008.
“I’d say they’re gone, ” said Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick, who has agreed to a five-year deal with General Motors.
Richard Childress Racing owner Richard Childress said there are enough signs to believe that JGR will make the jump, which he says will take Toyota to another level. David Newton, ESPN.com
Aug 11, 2007
In addition to luring Busch, rumors are that JGR is also being courted by Toyota. General Motors’ contracts with all of its race teams expire after the 2007 season. JGR has not renewed that contract, and Toyota is pushing hard. Toyota has far too much invested and is too proud of a company to accept the performance of its teams this season. To say Toyota’s initial performance has been disappointing is a vast understatement. Jeff Findley, ClantonAdvertiser
Aug 08, 2007
There are a lot of rumors about Toyota trying its best to latch on to one major team. A rumor surfaced several weeks ago that Penske Racing South would be the team, but that rumor has subsided. Is it going to be Joe Gibbs Racing? I don’t know. When you look at the three other manufacturers — Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford — you can rule out a bunch of teams. Larry McReynolds, FoxSports
Aug 07, 2007
What is Joe Gibbs thinking these days? Life just can’t be comfortable enough for him that he needs to shake things up a lot. Word is out that he is leaving the Chevy camp to run Toyota in ‘08. This is surprising given that the Toyota teams have struggled all year, and that’s being kind. JGR has done extremely well with the COT, maybe he’s thinking that his engineers will do much better than what’s happened so far this year with the other Toyota teams. SportingNews.com
July 15
Gibbs said that Toyota’s profitability as a passenger car manufacturer - and, presumably, additional financial resources available to support racing - wouldn’t necessarily weigh in the team’s decision.
‘‘GM’s had their struggles, but they’ve never, in our history, every cut back on marketing, ever cut back on their investment in the sport,’’ Gibbs said. ‘‘They’ve never wavered.’’ Covers.com
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