James Stewart: Motocross or Not?

Well dirt bike fans, it’s finally happened, James Stewart made the move to the Joe Gibbs Racing squad. They made the official announcement this morning, and it was one that was basically known for the better part of a week. Racer X broke the news early last week that James would most likely be making the move to the JGR tent for 2012, and that’s exactly what happened.

Since JGR opened up their Supercross racing efforts in 2008, they have been making great strides towards success each season. After only three years under their belts, they landed the fastest man on the planet. It’s a good fit in my opinion. The JGR team went from zero to hero rather quickly in the NASCAR world, and they seem to be on the right track to do the same in the dirt bike racing world as well.

You may notice that I have referred to it as the “dirt bike” racing industry twice in this article, and with good reason. There are quite a few questions that are still going unanswered with this whole JGR/Stewart deal. The number one thing that myself, and many others are wondering is, is James going to ever race outdoors (motocross) again? Nowhere in this press release did they give the indication that he would or would not but they did talk heavily on surpassing Jeremy McGrath’s 72 supercross win record, and how they wanted to become one of the top teams in supercross… Maybe this is due to the fact that the supercross season is only a few months away but again, nothing said for sure what their plans were.



It’s going to be a major disappointment if we have to sit through another outdoor season without “The Fastest Man on the Planet” gracing us with his presence. I would be disappointed in JGR if they signed him to a deal that only included one aspect of dirt bike racing. What if they started signing their NASCAR drives to only part of the Nationwide Cup Series?