BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Every day Bill Davis moves closer to a new future and further away from a frustrating past.

His Nextel Cup team, based in High Point, N.C., has run without support from Dodge since the middle of the 2003 season. That's when the manufacturer terminated its agreement and filed suit alleging the team had breached its contract with DaimlerChrysler by building and testing a Toyota prototype.

Davis will have one of the three Toyota teams next season, giving him that factory support. He announced Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway that Dave Blaney and Jeremy Mayfield will drive his cars next season.

It has been a long road to this point.

The loss of Dodge support meant the team did not have as much wind-tunnel time, did not have access to information developed by other teams, and did not have help from the various engineers and support people a manufacturer can provide. That means the team had to do all of that on its own. It made running competitively against Roush Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and others difficult.

The team has had two top-10 finishes since 2004. Yet, this was a team that won the 2001 Southern 500 and the 2002 Daytona 500 with Ward Burton.

Davis has persevered through the highs and lows.

"I'm not a quitter, and I wasn't going to quit on this deal,'' Davis says. "We've had a lot of success in the Cup garage but not nearly as much as I would like to have. Certainly the last two years have been an enormous struggle, but [wife] Gail and I never considered quitting. We just felt like there was a future and we were going to make it happen.''

Davis admits for as much as the team looks forward to next season, it can't get overconfident.

"It's a new manufacturer coming to the sport,'' Davis says. "Are they going to do a good job? Yes, but are they going to have struggles and mistakes made? Sure. We have to manage our expectations on everybody's part. We're going to have to work real hard and real smart.''

Staying put

Doug Yates says that 19-year-old Stephen Leicht will remain in the Busch series next season.

Leicht made his Cup debut for Robert Yates Racing at Pocono, finishing 36th. He failed to qualify at Indianapolis. He's competed in 12 Busch series races with one top-10 finish.

"Stephen is not ready for Cup,'' said Yates, RYR's co-owner. "The guy is 19 years old. He needs some time. He's going to be a great driver.''

Leicht's sponsor, CitiFinanical, also will remain, Yates said.

Yates says the team hopes to either find a sponsor and driver for next season or merge with an existing team. One option might be Mark Martin, who has expressed an interest to run at least some Cup races next year.

He might not be able to do it with Roush Racing because NASCAR limits organizations to four teams. Todd Kluever is scheduled to replace Martin next season so Martin can run in the truck series. Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and Carl Edwards are also set to run with Roush next year.

But car owner Jack Roush admitted last week that Kluever might not be in the car for all the races next year. That could impact Martin's plans.

Still working

Last week's car of tomorrow test at Michigan did not receive unanimous support. Jeff Gordon, driving the car for the first time, wasn't thrilled.

"I have some concerns, there's no doubt about that,'' he said. "It seemed like to me like the lead car was in full command of being able to control the field [though aerodynamics]. I don't think that's really what we're looking for. I thought we were able to make some passes and do some maneuvering but it was because we have a five- and six-wide race track at Michigan instead of just the car being able to do that.''

Jeff Burton says complaints are natural.

"Any time there is something different, there is a mad panic,'' he said. "We can complain and moan and groan about it or we can just go to work.''