Stewart/Gibbs Team up for 2012 Monster Energy Supercross Championship

AURORA, Ill. (December
21, 2011) – In arguably the biggest move in the off season, James
Stewart, of Haines City, Fla., signed a five-year agreement with the
Toyota/Yamaha/JGRMX team. Stewart will make his debut on the Joe Gibbs
Racing machine January 7, 2012, at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.,
when the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship,
begins.

Stewart,
a two-time Supercross Class champion, has created mainstream in-road
for the sport of supercross since turning professional in 2002, becoming
the first-ever African American to win a major motorsports title. The
highly-publicized move to the Gibbs team garnered national media
coverage, including the front page of USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and ESPN’s Sports Center, to name a few, for the 25-year-old phenom.

The
winner of 42 Supercross Class main events, Stewart suggested he will
eventually make the transition to four wheels under the Joe Gibbs Racing
banner. However, he hasn’t lost sight of becoming supercross’ all-time
winningest rider, a title currently held by seven-time Supercross Class
champion Jeremy McGrath, who boasts 72 wins.

Stewart told USA Today:
“My No. 1 focus is get to 73 wins, and after that, we can hit (NASCAR)
full force. We are definitely making steps to hopefully battling with
Junior (Dale Earnhardt) and (Jimmie) Johnson. I am looking forward to it
as another challenge in life. The cool part is maybe I have a chance to
be great in two different sports.”

Currently
31 wins away from breaking McGrath’s record, Stewart, whose known as
one of the fastest riders on the planet, has only been beat six times in
a race that he did not crash. However, he possesses a 92% career
win/crash rate, and through his first four seasons, he literally won or
crashed. It wasn’t until his fifth season that a competitor was able to
beat Stewart in a race that he didn’t crash. Stewart may be his own
biggest competitor, but this year’s field is stacked with nine different
Supercross Class winners, a stat that’s never been part of this 38-year
tradition.

The
Gibbs family has long been synonymous with winning, having captured
three NASCAR titles and three Super Bowl championships. It’s been four
years since Joe Gibbs Racing MX was established, debuting on the Monster
Energy Supercross circuit, and this year, Team President Coy Gibbs is
ready to give his family another coveted trophy.

Gibbs
stated, “When we started the supercross team in 2008, we had a building
phase and a championship phase. We spent the past four years learning
the sport and the equipment, and now we are ready to compete at the
highest level with an accomplished and talented athlete like James
Stewart, along with our founding partners Toyota and Yamaha.” 

The
2012 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, season
gets underway in just a matter of weeks, from Angel Stadium on Anaheim,
Calif., on Saturday, January 7.

For more information on the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, please log on to www.SupercrossOnline.com. For all media requests, please contact Denny Hartwig dhartwig@feldinc.com or 630-566-6305. To follow Monster Energy Supercross on Facebook and Twitter, log on to http://www.facebook.com/supercrosslive and http://twitter.com/supercrosslive.

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