TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Amid a firestorm of rumors about his future plans, Tony Stewart acknowledged Thursday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway that he had received offers to drive for other teams, with ownership options included.

Stewart said unconditionally that he had not asked Joe Gibbs Racing, his current team, for a release from the final year of his contract, which runs through 2009. Stewart did say, though, that he has presented several "what if?" scenarios to his current bosses.

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Right now we're going to do our due diligence on all the offers and try to figure out the best option for us.

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-- TONY STEWART

"Obviously, it's a shock, when they don't know anything about it," Stewart said of the reaction at JGR. "But we wanted to be up-front and honest with them and say, 'Listen, this is what's being presented to us.' "
• (Audio: Stewart discusses his future)

Stewart said last summer he was interested in signing an extension with the team he's driven for since 1998. But contract talks moved slowly, with Stewart saying in January he was in no rush to get a deal done.

"Like I said, they've been such great partners all along that it's not something -- like I said, there's nothing broke at Joe Gibbs Racing. There's nothing that needed to be fixed. There wasn't a problem over there. So we felt like the best thing to do was be up-front and honest with them from day one about it and at least let them know what was being offered to us and let 'em know what was going on and why we were taking longer to discuss our contract with them than what we had planned."

Stewart said Thursday he has not ruled out staying with JGR, but when he began negotiating a new contract, other teams approached him with new opportunities. The same thing happened back in 2003, when Stewart was able to leverage several deals -- including one from Chip Ganassi -- to secure a more lucrative contract with Gibbs.

"A wise person told me it never cost a dime to listen, so right now we're all ears," Stewart said of the latest offers. "Right now it's just a matter of figuring out what we want to do, and being smart. We've had a great run at Joe Gibbs Racing. It doesn't mean it's over. We're just going to look at everything that's out there."

Stewart acknowledged that his representatives had met with Haas CNC Racing to discuss the possibility of buying into that team. Since then, Stewart said, he has received other offers.

Haas CNC Racing purchases the engines for its Chevrolets from Hendrick Motorsports. Stewart, who drove Pontiacs and Chevys (both General Motors products) before Gibbs switched to Toyotas for the start of the 2008 season, fields Chevrolets for his own USAC teams. Chevy and General Motors also are sponsors at Eldora Speedway, Stewart's half-mile dirt track in Rossburg, Ohio.

Joe Gibbs racing president J.D. Gibbs, however, expects Stewart to remain with his current No. 20 Home Depot Toyota team through the final year of his contract. When rumors of Stewart's sooner-than-expected departure began to surface, Gibbs called a staff meeting at the team's race shop in Huntersville, N.C.

"We talked to our team guys today, and I think Tony and our team's on the same page," Gibbs said Thursday during an interview on Sirius' Tradin' Paint. "Our goal is here over the next couple of years -- '08, '09, that's when Tony signed to race with us -- that we're going to go full-bore and hopefully win a bunch of races and championships together.

"Our hope is, long-term, when you do that, this is the spot he chooses to retire. The reality is that we only control the next couple years, and we went through this the last time in his last contract negotiation. He had a lot of options then, too, and a lot of things out there.

"Our hope is we do our job, and he retires here."

Stewart, winless this season, is tied for sixth in the Sprint Cup standings. In nine full seasons with Gibbs, he has won 32 career Cup races, championships in 2002 and '05 and more than $67 million in prize money.

As Stewart sat and talked to the media at Talladega, however, he sounded intrigued by future possibilities that did not include Joe Gibbs Racing.

"There's a couple groups that have thrown some ownership in the mix," Stewart said. "We didn't go out and say we're looking to leave Joe Gibbs Racing. We haven't made a hundred-percent decision yet on what we're going to do, but we're going to look at all the options -- and the options are exciting all the way around.

"It's pretty exciting as a driver to be in this position. For me, it's been a huge honor to get these offers, because it kind of gives me a perspective of where I fit in this series, and what the car owners think of me."

But Stewart has more options now -- he said the offers are mounting and he received a new one Thursday morning -- and there's even more at stake for the driver: He turns 37 next month and likely is negotiating his final contract.

"The good thing is we have a year left on our contract, we're not in a rush, there's nobody putting any pressure on us to make a decision next week," he said. "Right now we're going to do our due diligence on all the offers and try to figure out the best option for us."

He long ago set in motion an aggressive business plan that centers around his love of grassroots racing, and the former sprint-car star owns several lower-level race teams and has ownership in a handful of race tracks, including full ownership of famed Eldora Speedway in Ohio. Moving into an ownership of a Cup team would complete his portfolio.

There's widespread speculation that General Motors is trying to lure Stewart from Gibbs, which left GM at the end of last season after 16 seasons with the manufacturer. JGR now fields Toyotas, and the Japanese automaker allowed Stewart to continue his Chevy deals despite the conflict of interest.

GM heavily supports Stewart's many race teams, and Stewart acknowledged in February that the move to Toyota was difficult for him. Haas is a GM team that has a support alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, the leader of the Chevy teams.

Lee White, senior vice president of Toyota Racing Development, said the manufacturer is thrilled with Stewart on its roster and is hopeful the former series champion stays with JGR.

"We are extremely happy with Tony. We love being involved with him, and we hope to continue the relationship with him for a very long time," White said. "Now what he chooses to do with Joe Gibbs Racing, that's a team issue and we have no involvement in that."

Stewart said Thursday his relationship with GM is still special, but that he'd built solid ties with Toyota since joining that manufacturer in January.

"It's not that there's anything wrong there," he said. "But I have a lot of strong ties to Chevrolet, obviously."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.