Weekend That Was: MIS

Michigan International Speedway is supposed to be a Ford track.

OK, so it's also Dodge country. And Chevrolets, though they have struggled to win races there in recent years, would like to perform well in the shadow of the Detroit home office, too.

But Toyota?

• Send Joe your thoughts
• Joe's Community page

Maybe Joe Gibbs Racing is onto something the rest of the racing world has missed. One week after announcing the signing of Kyle Busch as driver of the No. 18 JGR car beginning next season -- and simultaneously sidestepping the rumors that Gibbs might be trading in the Chevys they currently run for Toyotas -- the Japanese manufacturer placed two cars inside the top 10 during the rain-delayed 3M Performance 400 that finally was run Tuesday at MIS.

Never mind that the race was won by Kurt Busch, Kyle's older brother, in his No. 2 Dodge (watch video). Or that he was followed in order, by drivers of a Chevy (Martin Truex Jr.), Chevy (Jimmie Johnson), Ford (Matt Kenseth) and Chevy (JGR's own Denny Hamlin, who became the second driver behind only points leader Jeff Gordon to clinch a spot in the Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship).

With Dave Blaney finishing sixth in his No. 22 Toyota and Brian Vickers finishing eighth in his No. 83 Toyota after running near the front much of the day at MIS, it's quite possible the folks who crank out the Camrys their racecars are modeled after were doing Carl Edwards-like back flips in Tokyo.

Edwards drives a Ford and finished a respectable seventh himself, by the way. But the point is he likely wasn't nearly as pleased with his finish as the Toyota drivers, who have struggled virtually all year, were with theirs.

The top 10 finishes on the track represented just the fifth and sixth such efforts by all the Nextel Cup Toyota drivers combined this season. They have only one top-five -- a fifth-place finish by Vickers in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May.

By contrast, Tony Stewart, who finished 10th, now has 16 top-10 finishes this season -- along with seven top-fives and three wins. Fellow JGR driver Hamlin, has 14 top-10 finishes and 10 top-fives. Top Ford driver Kenseth now has 15 top-10s and eight top-fives. Even young Kyle Busch, 13th at Michigan, has 12 top-10s and five top-fives (including one win) as he drives for Hendrick Motorsports this season before making the jump to JGR.

Why drag out all these statistics? To illustrate how stupid it would be for Joe Gibbs Racing to make the leap from Chevy to Toyota next season.

Why dump a proven manufacturer, one with which all of its drivers obviously are very comfortable, to go to one that is still struggling to prove it belongs at the top level of the sport?

Yet the rumors persist, and J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR and son of owner Joe Gibbs, did little to quiet them when he was asked about it the day Kyle Busch's signing was announced.

"Really, for us, there's not much change in the past several weeks," J.D. Gibbs said. "We had some great conversations with GM (General Motors, Chevrolet's parent company) recently. We've obviously had a great partnership with them over the past 16 years. We've been great partners as well. (Continued)