Stewart straddles line as Toyota pilot, Chevy owner (cont'd)

"When we started the USAC programs, we went to Mopar right away -- so I was driving a Chevy on the Cup side then and all of our open-wheel teams were Mopar," Stewart said. "So it's no different than what I've had to do in the past with it. It's really not that big a deal."

That is the way Stewart appears to be approaching the Gibbs switch from Chevys to Toyotas as well. He said that especially with the full-time switch this season to the Car of Tomorrow for all Cup cars, making a change in manufacturers is not as dramatic as it may appear.

White

"In the big picture it seems like a huge change because we switched manufacturers," Stewart said. "But if we went ahead and made this change a year ago, it would have been a lot more dramatic than it is this year with the car that's the same for everybody. It's just literally a decal package and a motor package, for the most part. I think it's less of a change this year than it would have been in the past."

Stewart went so far as to assert that he felt little or no difference between the Chevrolet he drove in the past and the Toyota he drove during the first day and a half of single-car-run Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway.

"I wouldn't know the difference so far. It's hard to say," Stewart said. "I mean, you've got to keep in mind that you're on a 2.5-mile track and you're holding it wide open. You're not going to really feel it until you get around other cars. Any driver that says they can is a heck of a lot better driver than me, because I can't tell the difference.

"I couldn't tell the difference when we went to [test in Las] Vegas. You're not going to know. You're not talking about 20- or 30-horsepower gains to where you're going to feel it. You're only talking five- to eight-horsepower difference, and you're not going to feel that. Any driver who says he can feel that on the racetrack is lying to you."

Meanwhile, truth has been the best policy in dealing with Stewart, according to White.

In addition to cheering on Stewart in Chevys at the Chili Bowl, White also flew to Tony Stewart Racing headquarters a couple of weeks before JGR announced its alignment with Toyota this past September. White said he made the trip to put Stewart at ease, and did so by "shooting the bull" with him as Stewart's 50 or so employees worked on Chevrolet open-wheel cars all around them.

"If Tony had any reservations about racing Toyota in Cup, there wouldn't be a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. There is no question about that," White said. "I flew into Indiana and spent a whole day with Tony in his shop before the announcement to make sure he understood who I was and who we were, that he was comfortable with this deal.

"There is no pressure from us for him to come out and promote us. As far as his NASCAR racing, he'll do anything he needs to do."

As far as Stewart's commitments on the open-wheel side to Chevy, White insisted that Toyota will not stand in Stewart's way.

"He has an agreement with Chevrolet. I think it's great he's honoring that and they're honoring that," White said. "We would not want to get accused of coercing Tony to break a contract.

"We have teams that race against Tony in Midgets and Sprints. Our first preference is one of those guys wins the races. But if one of those guys can't win the race, I'm a Tony Stewart fan. I'm pulling for Tony. Maybe that's a personal thing. I'm a racer, Tony's a racer. I have a deep appreciation for what he does in all things racing."