CHEVY ROCK & ROLL 400 ~ Saturday Night ~ September 8, 2007 on ABC ~ 7PM ET [Last Race To The Chase]

Jayski, Infield Parking, Nascar | 09-04-07 | me, Jack, Junior

[af_vet_rr]

Looks like NASCAR.com is going to carry it as well (maybe just audio).

[af_vet_rr]

JoeGibbsRacing - Press Release

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (Sept. 5, 2007) – Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), winners of three NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championships and over 70 NASCAR races, will campaign Toyota Camrys in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Grand National Series beginning in 2008.

“We look forward to partnering with Toyota in NASCAR in 2008. Toyota will be hands-on with us as we become an integral part of their long-term development in NASCAR,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR.

“We have 420-plus families that are our number one priority, and taking care of them for the future is very important to us. Our people have made us as successful as we are today, and it’s those same people who will ensure our success in the future. When our teams win, those families win. We’re thrilled for everyone at JGR who will benefit from this.”

“This decision was made by all of the key leadership at JGR,” said Jimmy Makar, senior vice president of racing operations for JGR. “It was a decision made by the people in our competition department, who live by the one question whenever a decision is made regarding Joe Gibbs Racing: ‘Will this make us more competitive on the race track?’ The consensus answer was yes.”

JGR has been associated with General Motors since its debut in the 1992 Daytona 500. The team fielded Chevrolets from 1992 through 1996, switched to Pontiac in 1997, and then switched back to Chevrolet in 2003. Two of its championships came with Pontiac – Bobby Labonte in 2000 and Tony Stewart in 2002 – while the most recent championship came with Chevrolet in 2005 at the hands of Stewart. Two of JGR’s drivers – Stewart and Denny Hamlin – are currently in position to challenge for this year’s championship.

“General Motors has been a great partner to Joe Gibbs Racing, and we’ve been able to celebrate many victories together,” said Joe Gibbs, owner and founder of JGR. “GM has many great teams, and moving forward, we know they will continue to be very successful. It’s our hope we can deliver to GM their 38th Cup Series championship this season as a way to cap our 16-year relationship with them.”

“Joe Gibbs Racing is one of the most respected teams in NASCAR, a championship-caliber race team and a first-class organization,” said Jim Aust, vice president of Toyota Motorsports and president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development, USA. “We are confident that partnering with the Gibbs team will raise the level of our entire Toyota NASCAR program, and will be beneficial to all of our current teams racing the Toyota Camry.”

So JGR will be the premier Toyota team (or Factory Team if you want to call it that) of the #2 US automaker. They are going to be sittin' pretty.

[Afronaut]

With the new COT (IROC) the engine is really the only swap for them along with the decals. I do not see them having any issues in 2008. In NASCAR you cannot say no to $$ Gibbs will be as good next year as they have been.

The bugs have been worked out of the TRD engine and it will only be better after the GIbbs folks get their hands on the information.

I drive a Chevy and my MV is a Nissan. It is hard to bellyache about Toyota in NASCAR, I have owned 3 in my lifetime.

[Captain Jack Aubrey]

I just got the word: Two tickets for the suite. So its me and my 17 year old in the box at turn one, right above where the pit exit is. The TV camera that shows the pit stops is on the roof above this box.

My other son is running college cross country, so he will not be joining us.

[tubebender]

Enjoy your sons now because they will soon be scarce. My son is 49 and daughter is 45. Her two kids are 23 and 19. We all got together Monday for some Chillin and Grillin...

[LasVegasMac]

I stopped at the Richmond site and the gates were open. We did three laps...

LOL...that is great!

Just proves the old saying, "when opportunity knocks...""

I can just guess the thought process: "Hey look! the gates are open! I'm sure they won't mind if I do a couple of hot laps. I mean the gates ARE open, right? Right. Here we go...."

That is just too cool.

That would never happen here.

They would never leave the tunnel entrance, under turn two, open. You can see it from the south side of the track coming up I-15. Nah....

Ummmm....if I stayed on I-15, coming home from work, it would be about 20 miles out of the way....but it might be worth a look!

My luck would be that the gate is wide open, nobody around. I go through and find out it's the Nevada Highway Patrol appreciation day. Lol

Cool experience for you and the boy! Only 90?

I trust you have watched enough races that you could have done 100 - ?

"I'm not a Nascar Driver but I did sleep at a ......."

[tubebender]

With the new COT (IROC) the engine is really the only swap for them along with the decals. Gibbs will be as good next year as they have been.

Great point.

[LZ 129]

Thanks for the ping! Been crazy-busy last 2 weeks. Looks like all the domino’s are starting to fall into place for next year.

[af_vet_rr]

With the new COT (IROC) the engine is really the only swap for them along with the decals. I do not see them having any issues in 2008.

Not after the engine game crap that NASCAR played with Toyota between the trucks and the cars (funny how the other manufacturers didn't have to go through that crap, makes you wonder if they leaned on NASCAR to do that to Toyota).

Let's put the tinfoil on for a moment - was it a coincidence that JGR had this announcement within days of the sales figures coming out showing Toyota passing up Ford and becoming the #2 US automaker? Toyota knew those figures well in advance (probably have known it for a couple of weeks). JGR has been planning this for quite a well (several months from what I understand - the timing is such, it seems like TRD gave up on Michael Waltrip's crew and started lobbying JGR). It's a good PR boost for Toyota which is why I mention it.

Oh, and here's a tip for anybody that posts on other racing forums - when dealing with the "Joe Gibbs and Tony Stewart suck for switching to Toyota" contingent, they don't like it if you point out that certain Chevy teams, that the owners own lots of Toyota and Honda dealerships. Nope, they don't like it at all.

[tubebender]

I’m wondering if some GM insider whispered to Gibbs that funding may be cut in the near future. That could apply to Ford also...

[af_vet_rr]

I’m wondering if some GM insider whispered to Gibbs that funding may be cut in the near future. That could apply to Ford also...

Probably not - keep in mind that Gibbs was third in line at most as far as GM was concerned - behind Hendrick/Childress. With Toyota he is first in line.

Sure, the manufacturers can try and claim neutrality, but some are probably favored more than others. You would have a hard time convincing my son that Robert Yates didn't have a special hotline that connected directly to Ford, or that Ray Evernham didn't have one that connected to GM while he was with Gordon, and we saw how heavily involved with Michael Waltrip's team Toyota was (and for a while it seemed like it was going to work).

Here's the other thing as well, and something that makes NASCAR happy, is that with JGR moving to Toyota, that will help Michael Waltrip Racing out, which means it helps Dale Jarrett out - don't be surprised if MWR buys engines from Joe Gibbs.

[NYTexan]

Don’t know if ya watched NASCAR in Primetime tonight,

It was an interesting show. Delana is cool, but Johnny Sauters girlfriend is one piece of work! But they deserve each other.

[LasVegasMac]

Awesome on the suite seats!

I hope you and son have a great time! Turn 1...cool.

Like TB says in the post below, enjoy the time. My boy is 13...and it's just going too quick!

Just a fyi thing, I've been going to LVMS for 6 years now - had suite tickets once, given to us by a neighbor. Truck race, me and the boy.

The free food (the boy pigged out on the wings and designer chocolate cookies, they even gave him some to go!) and the free brewski's were great...but something was missing!

Sound. The view was great and all that...but I could not hear 'em!

The gift from above was....the roof.

Way awesome!!! Holy cow!! Team spotters just to the left of us...what a view!

It was still a bit warm out so when it was time to cool off, back downstairs to da 'sweet' !! Just an awesome time!

So at least ask if you can get to the roof, a very different perspective on things.

WCG, at least one Jr fan showed up for this truck race - pic #3. lol

Some pics from da 'sweet' - and roof!... 2005 Sept NCTS......

Getting ready to swap paint - from the roof

The boy...from the suite.

On the roof of the suite. Nice! Don't know who the kid is. :)

View from the roof of the suite...

View from the suite...

A great night, to be sure.

Like I said, the suite was nice but it was lacking in one key area - I can't hear 'em.

And I am one of those that needs to hear - and feel - the thunder!

I hope you guys have a great one!

Take some pics, ok?

[LasVegasMac]

forgot to add you....post #53.....duh!

[SouthTexas]

Like I said, the suite was nice but it was lacking in one key area - I can't hear 'em.

You and me both! :)

[WestCoastGal]

I fell asleep.

DeLana is a very supportive wife, she and Kevin are lucky to have each other. Kev can have a mouth on him at times, I think she keeps him grounded when possible. :)

That’s why I posted several weeks ago I wish Jr could find a woman like that, with racing background and not a gold digger.

The main reason I haven't watched that show was that I had heard it was mostly about the Sauter's.

[WestCoastGal]

Love the pics.

Tell that Jr fan to get his mojo working. :) I’ve stuck every pin in KB I could find and it’s not working. Unfortunately now we would have to stick Kevin and I can’t do that, so we will just root for wins now and not the Chase.

I heard Jr and TJ are going bow hunting in Texas.....too bad it’s such a big state and he’s blocked his tail#.

I’m surprised no one had any input on TJ going to HMS with Jr and Casey switching to the 5 with Kelloggs. We’re thinking the Nat’l Guard may be PT on the 81....which means we would have two of the armed forces supporting our teams.:)

[af_vet_rr]

The main reason I haven't watched that show was that I had heard it was mostly about the Sauter's.

It sure seems like it - they rotate out other people - Martin and Montoya for Tony, etc., but Sauter is apparently in the majority of them (I guess ABC/NASCAR thought it would be appealing to show somebody just moving up to Cup).

The problem is, Sauter is the kind of person who would turn people off to NASCAR. The way he acted towards his Grandma, and his attitude after failing to qualify for a Cup race, basically saying he was going to take his anger out on other Busch drivers, that's the last image NASCAR needed to project.

[WestCoastGal]

Fine-tuning possible for Talledega plate
By DAVID POOLE - The Charlotte Observer
NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said Tuesday that its possible a car of tomorrow test next week at Talladega Superspeedway could result in allowing Nextel Cup teams restrictor plates with larger openings for October’s race at the 2.66-mile track.

The Oct. 7 race at Talladega will be the first using the COT for a restrictor-place race.

“We’ll be there next week for a two-day test, fine-tuning the plate size and things of that nature,” Pemberton said.

“This car will allow us to open up the restriction a little bit on the engine. They’ll make a considerable amount of horsepower more than what they have raced at Talladega and Daytona in the past.”

[WestCoastGal]

Today’s Top News
Silly Season : What’s Left
By Tom Bowles

The last 48 hours have provided a litany of Silly Season news. From J.J. Yeley’s surprise signing with Hall of Fame Racing, to Joe Gibbs Racing’s announcement from Chevrolet to Toyota, to the pending announcement of Regan Smith to the No. 01 car next year, the biggest dominoes remaining in the Silly Season puzzle have already fallen.

So, what’s left to figure out other than Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s continuing number and sponsor saga? Here’s a quick chart of possible rides and drivers still available, along with a few news bites as to what may happen to close those deals in the near future:

CARS

No. 00 (Michael Waltrip Racing) - Looks to be set for next year with David Reutimann, as long as the rookie wants to keep the ride. He’s reportedly being courted by two major organizations (RCR has talked with him, so that likely makes one) and Reutimann should make his decision by the time September is complete.

No. 01 (DEI) - Regan Smith will be announced as the new driver at Richmond. Sponsorship is rumored to be Coors Light.

No. 08 (E & M) - New team that made Michigan with Joe Nemechek, but its future status is undetermined now that Nemechek is likely headed for Furniture Row’s No. 78.

No. 10 (Gillett-Evernham) - Despite denials to the contrary, hearing that Scott Riggs won’t be back in 2008. That would open the ride to several candidates; could this be one of the major teams Reutimann is negotiating with? Boris Said could also wind up under consideration with a thin free agent pool; remember, he’s driven a number of Busch Series races for Evernham already, and the two have developed a solid relationship.

No. 21 (Wood Brothers) - Status completely up in the air now that Yeley is off the market. May be a last resort move for Jeremy Mayfield or even Tony Raines.

No. 33 (RCR) - Will know by September whether this team goes full or part-time. Dario Franchitti, Reutimann, and Scott Wimmer are leading candidates for this seat. Should Franchitti win the IRL title, chances are he’ll give this serious consideration; Reutimann and Wimmer are less attractive options for sponsors, so that leaves the formation of this team up in the air. Expect Wimmer to run the car and be given a chance if it goes part-time.

No. 78 (Furniture Row) - Joe Nemechek made the race at California, enough for him to be given a five-race trial run. Success will almost certainly mean an offer to drive the car in 2008.

No. 88 (Robert Yates Racing) - With Yeley gone, Kenny Wallace has emerged as the favorite to get this ride. Having already driven for the team to replace an injured Ernie Irvan way back in 1994, it’s not like he’s a stranger, and Yates may be willing to take a chance on a man desperately searching for the right equipment to give him one last chance at Cup success.

DRIVERS

Sterling Marlin - Likely headed to the Busch Series, if anywhere at all, unless Furniture Row can give him a second car to run a part-time schedule.

Jeremy Mayfield - Apparently back at square one after losing out on the open ride at DEI. May be forced to take a long look at the Wood Brothers Ford.

Joe Nemechek - Frontrunner to take over the No. 78.

Tony Raines - Barring a big surprise, will likely return back into the Busch or Truck Series.

Scott Riggs - Status unknown pending possible release. May need to wait it out and see if Kyle Petty retires after the season at Petty Enterprises.

David Reutimann - Will likely resign with MWR...as long as no one else makes him an official offer to go elsewhere.

Kenny Wallace - Frontrunner to take over Robert Yates Racing’s No. 88 Ford.