September 2, 2007
By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

Happy Labor Day weekend!!

I hope everyone is enjoying the last official holiday of summer, and that wherever you are you have weather that is cooler than the guys in California are dealing with today. I dealt with 105 just a few weeks ago….and I just can’t imagine putting myself in a race car that runs 40 degrees hotter than that and driving around for four or five hours. I’d probably fry a few brain cells in the process.

Speaking of which, anyone think that Kyle Busch had a face to face with the Joe Gibbs Racing PR folks this weekend after he let the cat out of the bag five days early? As a former PR person, I heard Kyle come out and say “We were just always kept in the loop on what exactly was going to happen with that and, when they finally made their decision, they went ahead and called us” about driving Toyotas in 2008.

Hey Kyle, just because they called you doesn’t mean that you have permission to go out and tell everyone else. You don’t even WORK for JGR yet. Going out and spilling their secrets before you even get your own employee ID isn’t the best way to impress the new bosses.

JGR had a big press conference planned for next Wednesday at their headquarters in North Carolina, to make the announcement. Not that this was any real shocker, but I have a feeling that the folks at Gibbs weren’t looking to tell the world officially until they had all the media gathered in one place.

“So I’m not scared.” Kyle said as he went on, about driving a Camry in 2008. “I think they’re going to actually be a pretty good source to be associated with and Gibbs is going to make the right decisions, that they feel is fit in order to make sure that they get the best possible results every week. And, being as it’s going to be with Toyota, I think it will be fine.”

It might be fine, but my guess is if you were able to be smacked upside the head and told to shut up, someone would have done it.

So, now that the cat is out of the bag, the fans are writhing in pain at the idea that Tony Stewart will be driving a Toyota. Some fans say they can’t imagine him being in favor of driving a foreign car. He has such ties to Chevy that he wouldn’t ever consider driving one of those foreign cars.

One thing Smoke has always said is he wouldn’t mind going back to race in the IRL if it gave him a chance to win the Indy 500. He has pulled double duty between Indy and NASCAR before, and if they moved the races back to the point where it was feasible to do both in the same day, he has admitted he would be willing to consider it again.

If he wanted back to the IRL…..he’d be racing Hondas. He’d have no choice since all of the IRL uses Honda engines in their races. He has never complained about that, and has never said that since the IRL only races with Honda, he wouldn’t go back because he doesn’t want to drive foreign cars.

Some folks will say “Well, that’s different. They aren’t stock cars. They are Indy cars.” The IRL is an American-based racing league, just as is NASCAR. The “stock” left stock cars a decade ago.

“It’s just going to be the motor that’s going to be the biggest difference. The bodies are all pretty much close enough to being the same.” Shrub said as he talked about driving Toyota’s next year. “Now I’ve got to talk to Five Star Race Car Bodies to make me a late model body that’s a Camry. So I’ve got to make my changes, too.”

Smoke has a bunch of Sprint cars that are Chevy powered, however my guess is that Toyota will be more than happy to provide him with anything he needs to make the change.

The fans, who have died off in their complaints about Toyota being in NASCAR as the year has gone on, are back up in arms over this, bringing up all the old references again.

“We all can still hold out hope that Tony will walk away from the rice burners. He’s his own man- he could field a car on his own like Robby Gordon except he’d be successful. Gibb’s is a turncoat and did this purely out of greed. Maybe he can go coach a losing football team in Tokyo and no one will miss him. As a grandson of a Pearl Harbor victim I’m telling you people to wake up and quit buying rice burners before we have to call this land United States of Honda/Toyota!” wrote one fan.

Another wrote “See ya Tony and all the Gibbs cars…I’m sticking with GM, Ford or Dodges…….it was good while it lasted !!”

Hate to remind you folks, but Toyota's are made here in the USA…and I heard someone who works for a contractor for Toyota say he was told that only 6% of Toyota’s made in America have any part not made in the USA in them. If you look at Chevy and Ford…most aren’t built here anymore, nor are many of their parts.

NASCAR isn’t to blame for this. The folks about 30 miles to my east are. (Blame whichever President or congress you wish….) NASCAR looks a lot like the highways across America.

I say, the more the merrier. If you are a Chevy or Ford fan, doesn’t it make you feel even better when they beat up on Toyota’s and Dodges? Fans were so certain that Toyota was going to come in this year and “buy themselves a win” by throwing all kinds of money into the teams they were starting.

I think we can put that idea on the back burner, don’t you?

What they are doing in teaming with Joe Gibbs Racing, is taking the next step in their evolution. They put their toes in the pond with Michael Waltrip Racing, Bill Davis Racing, and Red Bull Racing…now it is time to get up to the ankles with JGR. By 2009, they might be up to speed with everyone else, but they hardly came in and bought their way to Victory Lane. If you look at the Craftsman Truck Series, you have a Toyota in first place in the standings, a Chevy in second, a Ford in third, a Toyota in fourth, and a Chevy in fifth. Seems pretty evenly split to me.

Toyota is here, and they are broadening their horizons. I think it will be interesting to see if they actually have more success with JGR than they have next year.

Is it the teams that are having the problem, or is it the manufacturer? If JGR makes the switch next year and struggles just like the three teams this year, then we can point the finger at Toyota. If they come in and start winning right away, then the fingers get pointed at the teams.

Either way…it will be interesting to watch it all unfold.


On a quick side note…I want to wish a happy retirement to friend and fellow NASCAR fan “Gumby”. He left the Service yesterday after 32 years active service, and now he is looking forward to retiring to Florida with his new bride (a Smoke fan…). He will be heading to Daytona as a retiree in February, and is looking forward to every moment of it. All the best Gumby. You have earned it!

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.