by Darrell Waltrip

Comment

Toyota was attracted to the Gibbs team because JGR has its own engine program. When you look at manufacturer dollars these days, General Motors/Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge only have so much of a budget to spend on racing. GM is pretty heavily invested in Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing. The Childress/Dale Earnhardt Inc. engine company probably takes a lot of Chevy's resources and support. So it's a logical step for Gibbs and a logical choice for Toyota.

JGR has a great engine program. They make great power, and they've been involved in a lot of research and development on the R07 engines so they have a lot of knowledge. They have great in-house people and every imaginable CNC machine that's known to man. They have all the resources, which will be valuable to Toyota.

With the Car of Tomorrow being run full-time next year, the cars will be the same so you've got to look somewhere else for an advantage. Toyota has an incredible engine, and they're putting it in the hands of experienced engine builders like Mark Cronquist. Then, they're putting that engine in a car set up by the crew chiefs and the drivers that Gibbs will have next year — Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. Gibbs has an incredible engineering department with all the latest and greatest. They had seven-post shaker machines when nobody else probably even thought about using them. They've got Doctor Who, Ronny Crooks, who is a great magician with shocks.

Combining all of those resources and knowledge, Toyota knocked one out of the ballpark by aligning with Gibbs, and it's going to help all of the manufacturer's teams. It'll help my brother Michael. It'll help Red Bull Racing. It'll help Bill Davis Racing. It's a great addition to the Toyota family, and the family members will reap incredible benefits. Plus, it won't take all year long to be strong. They will come out of the box at Daytona with a great package.

Toyota couldn't have become affiliated with a better organization and a better leader than J.D. Gibbs. He's a smart guy, and we've come to be very good friends. He's with me on the Motor Racing Outreach board of directors, and he's a good Christian guy, just like his father is. J.D. will do a great job of leading the company.

Merger mania

It appears to me that merger mania has hit NASCAR. Hall of Fame Racing will go with Gibbs to Toyota because they're so aligned with JGR, which provided all of the support to Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach. With the addition of J.J. Yeley over there and with the power of Toyota, H.O.F. will be another good combination for next year.

We haven't heard the last of mergers. I never would have thought it, and I'm not sure why Troy and Roger elected to do what they did. It looks like a lot of guys are selling out in this NASCAR merger mania, and a lot of mergers will be announced in the very near future.

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Out of respect to the Chase, organizations are waiting for the hype and excitement of who is in and who is out of the Chase to be determined. Then, some other business decisions will be made public, just like Dale Jr.'s sponsor and his number. (Oh, by the way, I wouldn't mind seeing him have No. 11 on his car. That would make me pretty happy, but then that wouldn't make Denny Hamlin very happy.)

Over the next few weeks, we'll hear about a lot of business happenings in NASCAR that will continue to change the face of the sport.

Juniors belong together

Speaking of strong packages, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will come out of the box fast next year with Hendrick Motorsports. This week, a lot of people have said, "I wish they hadn't hired Tony Eury Jr. I wish Dale Jr. had gotten a clean start and severed all ties with his No. 8 team at DEI." I disagree. Bringing in Tony Jr. is a great move. Dale Jr. is comfortable with Tony Jr. Man, I'd hate for those two guys not to be together because we would miss out on some hilarious radio conversations.

My brother worked with Tony Jr. My brother is hard to please, and he's pretty knowledgeable. He said Tony Jr. is the best crew chief he's ever worked with, and that's the general consensus in the garage. Tony Jr. and Dale Jr. will be better than ever with Hendrick's unlimited resources. They're going to have all of the technology that HMS' great engineering staff has to offer.

They're going to have more people to help them, not only set up and build the cars, but Tony Jr. will have somebody like Darian Grubb sitting right beside him, helping make strategic calls during the race to run the race from the pit box. They'll rely on all kinds of people back at the shop.

A couple of guys have told me that once they left where they were and walked into the Hendrick Motorsports organization, they realized why they couldn't beat HMS. From engines to cars to crews to sponsors, the Hendrick organization lacks for nothing, and the results show it.