Gibbs confirms switch to Chevrolet

Meanwhile, General Motors officials affirmed that Pontiac, down to three teams with the departure of JGR, intends to maintain its participation in Winston Cup at current levels, recruiting one or two new teams. Cal Wells's group, currently with Ford, is in negotiation.

"Pontiac has been a great partner," team boss Gibbs said. "We finished second [in the points] twice, I think, and we won a championship with them, so it's been everything we thought it would be.

"Really, our thought process was... when we make a decision on our race team, a critical component to that would be our drivers, our crew chiefs, and everybody in our front office. This is one we've been thinking about for a while. We feel like starting next year, we'll be in a better position as a race team, because we can benchmark our cars against a lot of other good cars. It's just pure numbers for us."

Gibbs took Bobby Labonte to the Winston Cup title two years ago, and also runs one of the biggest stars of NASCAR, Tony Stewart. In Busch, Mike McLaughlin drives for the team. JGR's Craftsman Truck arm already uses Chevrolets.

Pontiac has developed, and submitted for approval, a new 'Grand Prix' model for 2003, based largely off NASCAR's 'common body' configuration. The new car should be much more similar, in critical dimensions, to the Ford and Dodge.

JGR was the leader in developing the new model. Simultaneously, Gibbs privately tested Chevrolets, and team sources say the side-by-side results favour the Chevrolet.