Leffler said in a
Speedvision article that Gibbs was appraised of the decision before hand although the team was not. IMHO, Leffler can't be blamed for bolting. Gibbs was dangling a carrot out in front of Leffler, but kept yanking it back. Leffler had no firm committment for cup in 2002 with Gibbs/MBNA cause Gibbs is keeping MBNA in his pocket if Interstate can't ony up the money to stay on the 18, and this was preventing Leffler from getting his career in order. I do agree he is no way ready for Cup, Ganassi should've put him in one of Sabco's old bgn cars for another year, and put a veteran like Morgan Shepherd in the 01(who would probably accept a 1 yr only deal given his current status--unlike say Mast, Lepage, Bliss, Fuller, Dallenbach etc) who would be great at testing and R/d Geoff Bodine might've beenn another candidate if Ganassi had gone that route, who I also think would've taken the job though it's only 1 yr, cause both he and Shepherd are rideless and being left behind by the "youth movement," they'll take any chance to prove themselves again. Of course, Ganassi didn't, so it's moot.