Richmond, Va. — One of the top executives in the General Motors racing operation said the automaker will attempt to sign Tony Stewart to a contract with another Chevrolet team after his current deal with Joe Gibbs Racing expires.
“We’d be interested in Tony staying with Chevy,” Brent Dewar, GM North America vice president of sales, service and parts, said Friday at Richmond International Raceway. “Most fans don’t realize that the drivers sign with the teams, and we all respect that. I understand he’s through 2009 currently with Gibbs. We’d love for him to continue with Chevrolet down the road. … “We’ve had a great relationship with Tony.”
Dewar also said Chevrolet will continue to support Stewart’s hobby—sprint-car racing—despite his defection to Toyota next year along with the rest of the Gibbs drivers.
“We’ve just got to sit down and see if it makes sense for all parties,” Dewar said. “We are starting to work with him and develop … he’s passionate about sprint cars, so we can see some avenues.”
Stewart said during last week’s Toyota press conference that he is planning an aggressive round of contract negotiations with his team.
“When we get done with this contract negotiation, you'll think I'm your rival,” Stewart told team President J.D. Gibbs.
As far as the team’s decision to switch to the Japanese automaker, Dewar said it didn’t come down to money, but rank in the pecking order.
“Gibbs has been very happy with the success, they’ve been happy being our partner. They’ve always been concerned: Are they the lead group? And we’ve always assured all our teams—whether it was when Dale Earnhardt was alive, or whether it was Childress or Hendrick or Gibbs—we’re working with all you guys,” said Dewar. “… We provide like a menu of support. Some take more wind tunnel [time], some need more help on road racing, so we do that. Some need more help on technology, so we do that. Some need financial resources. We allow them to draw from that.”
