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Joe Gibbs Racing's Steve deSouza hears a higher calling
By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor
Friday, January 02, 2009
Steve deSouza with his sisters (from left) Marianne Barden, Melinda Shenk, Maggie deSouza and Tina Thompson.
Steve deSouza
Steve deSouza was a champion powerboat racer several years ago when his career came to a screeching halt. The man who now supervises Joe Gibbs Racing’s dominant Nationwide Series team had a kidney removed, putting his racing career in jeopardy.
But there’s more to the story, much more. DeSouza’s kidney wasn’t being removed because there was something wrong with it. The kidney was going to his younger sister, Marianne Barden, whose own kidneys were failing.
In March before the powerboat racing season started, Steve and Marianne had lunch, with Marianne telling her older brother the news about her kidneys.
The problem was made worse by Marianne’s use of ibuprofen to help deal with the pain. The more pills she took, the worse her kidneys got. In a few months, her health deteriorated quickly.
“What do you need?” Steve asked her.
“We’re looking for a donor,” she told him.
“Why don’t I do that?” Steve said.
Marianne didn’t want him to, but Steve agreed to go through the process of finding a match. Two of their sisters had the same blood type, too, but Steve was the lone match.
Doctors told Steve his boat racing career should come to an end, for if he was involved in a traumatic accident, the effects on his remaining kidney would be devastating.
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Yeah, OK,’” deSouza said.
Steve’s wife, Missy, listened to the doctors, too, but she’s the only one who actually heard them.
After the surgery to remove Steve’s kidney, Missy asked him what he was going to do next.
“I’m going to get better and go race,” Steve said.
“No, no, you didn’t hear what he said,’” Missy said. “You’re not racing.”
Turns out, Steve did race, twice more. Once, he snuck off to race in a regional event that Missy didn’t know about. The other time, Steve won. And then he called it a career.
“We had no clue what we were going to do, no clue,” deSouza said.
Marianne made it through the kidney replacement surgery fine, and doctors told her she’d live another six to eight years. She made it 10 more before succumbing to cancer.
DeSouza, meanwhile, needed another career. His faith helped him find one.
A chaplain deSouza knew from boat racing helped him get to know Bill Amick, whose son Lyndon wanted to go NASCAR racing. The Amicks ended up asking deSouza for help in managing their race team, and he was in NASCAR.
A couple of years later, the Amicks went in another direction, and deSouza ran into Greg Pollex at a Motor Racing Outreach event. The two decided to start Progressive Motorsports, which eventually became ppc Racing, which competed in what was then known as the Busch Series.
In the early 1990s, Joe Gibbs Racing decided to start a team in NASCAR’s No. 2 series. Interstate Batteries, one of JGR’s Cup sponsors, had backed deSouza’s boat racing team, and he got to know team owner Joe Gibbs and eventual team president J.D. Gibbs, Joe’s son.
When Gibbs needed someone to help run the Busch team, it looked to deSouza. There were some trying times along the way, but JGR won 19 races during the 2008 Nationwide Series season, with its No. 20 Toyota winning the owners championship.
“Ten years we've been doing this, and Steve has kind of been guiding us along the way,” J.D. Gibbs said. “To have this year is just kind of a testament to all the work he's put into it as kind of overseeing [it].
“Look, we've got a lot of stuff going on in the Cup shop. Nationwide is extremely important to us, but Steve kind of runs that for us.”
Dave Rogers, crew chief for the No. 20 team, credits deSouza for being the kind of manager who lets the racing people do the racing.
“Steve has done an exceptional job of helping the team acquire sponsors and bring in the resources that we need,” Rogers said. “And he’s done a great job of giving [crew chiefs] Jason [Ratcliff], Doug [Hewitt] and I the flexibility to take the technical part of this race team down the path that we think it needs to go down.
Rogers said there is a trust between the crew chiefs and deSouza, a trust that sometimes isn’t seen in other manager/employee relationships.
But deSouza admitted he wasn’t always the best boss.
“That’s a painful lesson I’ve been through over many years,” deSouza said.
DeSouza turns 55 this February, and he’s a few years from the glory of winning championship boat races. The limelight shines on Joe and J.D. Gibbs, on Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano – and that’s the way deSouza likes it.
In the same way, he deflects praise for giving up a kidney – and a driving career – to his younger sister.
To deSouza, there is a higher calling, serving a God who has taken him to many great places in his life.
“You can look back at your entire life and say, ‘There is no way I could’ve scripted that, there is no way I could’ve managed that, there is no way I could’ve made it happen,’” deSouza said. “But the Lord had a plan for me. I don’t see things real good sometimes, so doors had to slam shut and another one had to open so I’d say, ‘I guess I have to go through this one.’”
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4 responses to "Joe Gibbs Racing's Steve deSouza hears a higher calling ". Post a Comment.
Retired Army said:
Jan 2, 2009 at 10:51 AMLet him be an inspiration to us all.
Pat Draper said:
Jan 2, 2009 at 11:38 AMWhat a great good feeling story. Its so seldom that you are able read a story like this. I hope Steve continues to have a good life and be a becon of light to all of us that you can deal with what ever life hands you. I am glad he know Coach Gibbs and JD and i think they are the greatest people in the nascar garage.
Billy Williamson said:
Jan 2, 2009 at 3:02 PMThanks for printing this we need more stories like this, everyone does.
Jill Dieter said:
Jan 2, 2009 at 3:26 PMThank you for this story. Steve thank you for the gift you gave and for the future you will have. Coach Gibbs and JD are blessed to have you with them.