AJ was never slated to replace Labonte in the 43, other than when it came into the picture as a merger possibility with GEM. And even then, the rumor was always that Reed would be in the 43 and AJ would be in the 10.
Since even before the end of the season, GEM has been trying to move heaven and earth to land AJ in a ride. Word has it that Kasey personally put the bug in their ear that they had made a mistake in getting Reed and should have gotten AJ instead. And this was before AJ ever came and did the fill in job at the end of the year.
After his success in those 5 races in the 10 car, it just solidified how much they wanted him as part of their organization. They tried to get a 4th car by buying BDR, and that fell through. Then they started trying to get the merger with Petty through to get the 4th car. My guess is that even with the merger with Petty, they are still going to be short sponsorship funds to field a 4th team. I don't think there will be 4 teams, even if the merger goes through. I think that's why Elliott was bought out, because they couldn't get the 4th car for AJ. And they wanted him more than they wanted to keep Elliott.
Of course none of us know what's really going on behind the scenes. Even before all this AJ talk, Elliott's crew chief had jumped ship. Maybe Elliott wanted the buyout. Maybe he was miffed over the way Ray had been shoved aside, and by the fact that they were courting AJ, whom he still has a grudge against. Maybe it was GEM who was tired of his big head and his bad attitude. I listened to his scanner quite a bit at the end of the year, and I personally don't think he even wanted to be there.
All I know is that I'm glad AJ has a solid team that wants him that badly, which is something he didn't have at Red Bull. He has a teammate that
already works well with him, which he also didn't have at Red Bull, and they have a fresh young trio of potential superstars on the team. I'm also
confident that Elliott will have a ride for next year. Besides the possibilities of the 41 and 77, there is also the 22 car which is locked into the field for
the first five races, and is under new ownership. Unfortunately, none of those are stellar teams at the moment, and there is the possibility that he will fade
into obscurity, other than as a TV personality.
I think that you're right that Jeremy Mayfield is the one laughing his ass off over this, though. I'm sure he has just loved the fact that Elliott was
never able to do much better in the car than he did.
