Chevrolet will persevere, but so will Gibbs at Toyota

Joe Gibbs Racing's announcement Wednesday that it would switch its Nextel Cup manufacturer alliance from General Motors' Chevrolet brand to Toyota Camrys in 2008 came as no surprise.

But the fact is, the move is the most significant manufacturer swap in nearly two decades of Cup competition.

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And proving how much the landscape in racing, like everything else in the world, has changed, the man at the center of the last such earth-moving switch -- which occurred 19 years ago when Junior Johnson moved from Chevrolet to Ford for the 1989 season, said there's a big difference in why he changed and why he feels Gibbs' organization did.

"It's all a money thing," Johnson said Wednesday afternoon from his North Carolina home. "Gibbs' operation is going to get a lot of money for the switch, so I think money, basically, was the whole reason because he could not have any more successful of a team than what he's got. So it's a total money thing."

Johnson on Wednesday said his decision was based on what he called a betrayal of trust by someone he didn't identify in GM's motorsports hierarchy. The result was a decision he said he'd make exactly the same even if he had to do it today.

Chevrolet, which in recent weeks has said it's in the process of renewing agreements with its Nextel Cup teams, on Wednesday exhibited the demeanor of a rejected suitor -- and rightfully so, as it has a major hole to fill.

But it's got a deep lineup already with multiple teams from Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing, which currently has six spots in the 12-team field for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Gibbs, with drivers Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, has two more Chase positions as it tries to leave Chevrolet with its fourth title with a GM brand.

But looking down the road, JGR saw itself as perhaps one more buffalo in a pretty sizeable GM herd -- and by positioning itself to take a lead role in the continuing development of Toyota's first-year Nextel Cup program, an opportunity to elevate its competitiveness.

That certainly hasn't been lacking to this point, which adds to Chevrolet's pain in their loss. Since entering Cup competition at Daytona's Speedweeks in 1992, JGR has amassed three series championships and 58 race victories.

But if GM's record since the last time it suffered an impact like this one -- specifically at the end of the 1988 season when the legendary driver/owner Johnson switched from Chevrolets -- one of three GM nameplates he'd raced for 15 years, with six championships, all gained in a 10-year span from 1976-85 -- to Fords is any indication, they'll survive.

If they survived Johnson's departure, after the Wilkes County icon amassed 94 victories for GM in 15 seasons -- they can weather any storm, even the worst that can come up in this turbulent financial and competitive era.

"Oh yeah, there's no question Chevrolet will do very well next year," Johnson said. "Rick Hendrick's got a great operation and he's going to have three great drivers; so [Chevrolet] will not go under, just losing Joe Gibbs."

In the next eight years of full-time competition after his switch, Johnson's teams won 14 races and with Bill Elliott at the wheel, came within 10 points of winning the 1992 championship, which was claimed by another Ford team, Alan Kulwicki's.

But in the last 18 seasons, not ironically since Johnson announced his switch, GM brands have won 14 championships: 10 by Chevrolet and four by Pontiac.

Moving forward

In announcing its move to Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing identified itself as a team that was ready, is willing, and will be able to carry the manufacturer's banner in the Cup Series.

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That Gibbs should make a seamless transition is borne out by the fact that in its relatively short 16-year history the team, which now numbers three Nextel Cup cars and two full-time Busch programs -- which will also feature Toyota Camrys next season -- has switched nameplates twice before.

Gibbs Racing began life as a Chevrolet team in 1992 and, after winning six races with future champion drivers Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte; converted to Pontiacs in 1997. With Pontiac's Grand Prix, JGR won 30 races and two championships during the next six seasons, courtesy Labonte and 1999 Raybestos Rookie of the Year Tony Stewart.

After switching back to Chevrolets in 2003, JGR's impact didn't lessen as it won 22 races and the 2005 championship, with Labonte, Stewart and Denny Hamlin in its Monte Carlos and Impalas.

Johnson said Toyota's finances would help, as NASCAR moves into 2008's inaugural year of full Car of Tomorrow implementation.

"The parts and pieces are by and large the same, so that's exactly right -- it comes down to getting all the money you can from wherever you can," Johnson said. "It's come down to the motors are the only thing different in any of them cars."

But the bottom line, as Johnson confirmed, is that JGR, through its history, has proven it can produce and as such, it would elevate to the top of Toyota's totem pole, and he used Michael Waltrip's operation as an example.

"There's no way in the world Michael would get the money that Joe Gibbs will, and that's always been the very base of things," Johnson said. "It's not based on whether you could produce or not. With the drivers they have, it's not a case of whether they're going to produce or not.

"It's just the fact that the whole Joe Gibbs team is a top-notch team, they've had success and there's no question that will continue. It's a no-brainer for Toyota because he's already produced; he's got three good drivers and the teams that have already been successful."

And judging by the comments Wednesday across the board in the Gibbs camp, the feeling's totally mutual -- so let the games begin, in 2008, of course.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.