Jeff has an equity ownership share of HMS, in addition to his partnership with Rick on the 24 and 48. Rick sees Jeff almost like a son, and he said he would like Jeff to take over executive management of HMS when Jeff retires from racing. So I'm certain this happened with Jeff being a big part of the decision-making, even if they deny it for public consumption.
All I can say is welcome to the HMS family, Junior. Just don't take any of Jeff's good cars like what happened when they formed the 48 team. ;-)
I think next year will be fun!
They are already being called the 4 Kings, the 4 Horsemen etc.
Jeff was just on Sirius radio.........[like he doesn’t already know] Ha!
He’s very anxious to find out what Junior has to say tomorrow. He hasn’t had time to really talk to him, because he’s been concentrating on driving and that if they could get Junior to HMS, then he’s welcomed there.