Junior had been in serious talks with both Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress to drive for their teams, but in the end Hendrick won out. Much speculation as to why that was, but it’s probably just as simple as Junior going with the team that gives him the best immediate shot at winning a championship.

I imagine most Junior fans are happy to see him with a shot to drive a much more competitive car, but man, there have to be some heads exploding in the land of Junior fans as far as trying to wrap their head around the notion that Jeff Gordon is now a teammate and not the dread enemy.

While you might normally question the timing of the move, with Daytona looming large in just a few days (thank you, wee baby Jesus baby for the season finally starting), it wasn’t completed unexpected. Mears’ move to the #25 was likely to result in a new crew chief, which it ultimately did.

Lots of people are tabbing Mears as a Chase contender this year, so it’ll be interesting to see how quickly the team and crew chief can ramp up, as they won’t be given the leeway for disappointing results that other new teams normally might get.