J.D. Gibbs sees brighter days ahead for Joe Gibbs Racing
Joe Gibbs Racing President J.D. Gibbs expects his three teams that compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to improve in 2010.
// Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Scene
Joe Gibbs Racing began the 2009 season with a rookie driver and two youngsters who had raced in the shadow of two-time NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart.
The year ended with all three drivers – Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano – winning one or more races during the season. But only one driver, Hamlin, ran consistently enough to make NASCAR’s Chase For The Sprint Cup.
In spite of the group’s shortcomings, JGR President J.D. Gibbs says he sees good things ahead for the 18-year-old team.
Logano made his first full-time foray into Cup and came away with his first Cup victory (at New Hampshire Motor Speedway), the series’ rookie-of-the-year title and a 20th-place finish in the point standings.
Busch won four times (Las Vegas, Richmond and a sweep at Bristol) but missed making the 12-team Chase by just eight points. By season’s end, he had a new crew chief but mixed results in the season’s final 10 races (four top-10s in 10 starts) and a 13th-place points finish.
Meanwhile, Hamlin won a career-best four races, only to see engine issues force his No. 11 team to play catchup for most of the Chase. A strong finish (second, third and first in the final three races) eventually elevated him to fifth in the final point standings.
“I think overall, when we started the season, we made the change with Joey, and our guys said that’s the guy we want to have,” Gibbs said of the rookie’s move into the No. 20 Toyota previously driven by Stewart.
“Everyone agreed on that [move]. Our plan was that we were going to test our brains out. Then, as soon as we make that decision, testing gets taken away. So you’re going into place you’ve never even seen before and racing against the best drivers in the world.”
That the team was able to overcome early season struggles, Gibbs says, “was real encouraging. I think that’s exciting for our future.”
Busch’s problems, Gibbs says, were likely due to “some stuff he probably caused himself, and some issues we probably caused, and as a result, he ends up not making the Chase.
“That was discouraging. I think going into next year with [crew chief] Dave Rogers and the way he works with Kyle … that’s a big deal,” Gibbs says.
“And Denny really taking kind of a leadership role. … It has been encouraging to watch him and [crew chief] Mike [Ford] grow together. So I think all of that bodes well for us for years to come.”
Coming off an eight-win season in 2008, Busch was pegged as a threat to unseat Jimmie Johnson in the championship battle this year. Although he won half as many races as the year before, and missed the Chase, some still feel he’s the driver who can give the four-time champion a run for the money next season.
“I think Kyle learned a lot [in winning the 2009 Nationwide Series title],” former championship-winning crew chief Ray Evernham says.
“I think missing the Chase made him focus more on winning a championship. And now that he has, now that he sees what that is like, he’s going to want that [Cup] championship more.
“Dave Rogers is going to make a big difference over there, and I think Jimmie’s big challenge is going to come from Kyle in the future.”
From the technical side of the sport, Gibbs says his group’s three teams have “no excuses.
“Motors, cars, chassis, no excuses whatsoever,” he says. “Now, it’s what you do with it that makes a big difference.
“We have everything we need to go run well.”
Well enough to unseat one of the sport’s best teams ever? Well enough to crack the one-two-three finish posted by Hendrick Motorsports teams in 2009?
Gibbs says it’s obvious his organization has to improve, but JGR isn’t the only group trying to reel in those red-hot Hendrick teams. But he has also been around long enough to know that success in the sport is cyclical.
“You don’t stay there forever,” he says. “I don’t care if you’re talking about [Dale] Earnhardt, [Jeff] Gordon, or Jimmie [Johnson]. We were there for a while with Tony.
“Whenever that changes, or if they falter, we want to be the ones there to fill that role. The reality is that you have to beat them week in and week out, which is difficult. But you have to be prepared to do that.”
