Roush-Fenway aside, the fight for the honour of ‘best of the rest' behind Chevrolet will be an interesting one between Dodge and Toyota. Despite their indifferent start to Cup Series life last year Toyota definitely has an ace in the hole in Joe Gibbs Racing and even with the change in manufacturer it is hard to imagine JGR trio Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and new recruit Kyle Busch NOT challenging for victories and at least a place in the end of season Chase. The addition of the JGR-affiliated Hall of Fame Racing adds some extra strength in numbers while the three ‘original' Toyota teams, Bill Davis Racing,
Red Bull Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing will be determined not to let the new incumbents steal the glory that surely awaits the Japanese manufacturer.
Towards the end of last season Penske Racing finally began to offer the kind of Dodge threat that the marque had hoped for at the start of the year and in Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman they once again have the tools to lead the Mopar charge at the very least. Busch will undoubtedly be looking to challenge for the championship while Newman wants to regain some of the momentum he has lost over the past two years.
2007 was an unmitigated disaster for Gillett-Evernham Motorsports and it remains to be seen if the raft of off-season personnel changes will have the desired effect. Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler never really got going at all last year with Sadler's #19 team in almost complete disarray by the time the chequered flag fell at Homestead. With Budweiser now adorning Kahne's #9 Dodge failure simply isn't an option. If the team clicks it certainly has the capability to challenge anyone on the grid; if it doesn't then one only has to look at George Gillett's current, somewhat tumultuous situation as the co-owner of Liverpool FC in England to see that a rocky road could lie ahead.
