Joe Gibbs Racing makes it official: Toyota

The worst kept secret in NASCAR was made official on Wednesday.

Joe Gibbs Racing, which will field cars in the Nextel Cup Series for Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch in 2008, will field Toyota Camrys. The switch ends a 16-year relationship with Chevrolet for the 3-time championship organization.

For JGR, it was about taking a leadership role with a manufacturer instead of being just another team within a large group.

"I think we feel like Toyota has some good teams and in years to come will be very good. I think it will be a good partnership for us," said J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR. "I do think GM’s got 4 really strong teams. And I think obviously there are certain things we think we'd like to have a leadership role in. I think this gives us that leadership role."

Tony Stewart, who has won 2 Cup titles for JGR in Chevrolets and is aligned with Chevrolet as an owner in the World of Outlaws sprint car series, said he welcomes the change but does not expect it to affect his open-wheel efforts.

"I'm excited about it. We're in the middle of contract negotiations right now and working to extend my contract already, so I'm excited about this," said Stewart, who is currently 2nd in the Cup standings, one spot ahead of teammate Hamlin. "It's like J.D. said, it's a good opportunity for us to take a leadership role and have a little more input on what we can do here. But as far as my USAC and World of Outlaw teams, we're still going forward with Chevrolet on that side now. We made it work when I had Mopar and I was driving for Chevrolet on the Cup side. We've done it before. We can make it work again."

Rumors had been flying for weeks that JGR was going to make the switch to Toyota, and the newest addition to the team, Busch, all but confirmed it during the race weekend at California last week.

JGR joins Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Bill Davis Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Team Red Bull as Toyota-affiliated teams in the Cup Series. JGR also intends to run Toyotas in Busch Series competition.

"Our plan has always been that as we entered NASCAR Cup series, that we would grow," said Jim Aust, president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development. "The opportunity is one of the things that you don't know when that's going to come available to you. So the plan is that as we entered, we entered with new teams, with the addition of Bill Davis and Bill bringing the experience that he had.

"But certainly there is a lot of skill, a lot of experience, many years of championships here (at JGR) that I think are going to help Toyota in the long run, and I think you'll see the benefit of that next year."