Sports: Gibbs a winner in another venue

Gibbs a winner in another venue

Pro Football Hall of Famer is close to first Winston Cup title.

By KEVIN KELLY

Joe Gibbs' specialty is building winning cars. Not fixing them.

So as NASCAR officials examined the engine in one of his race cars last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, the former Washington Redskins coach leaned against a stack of used tires and didn't say a word.

"Is it a different feeling? Totally different for me," the 59-year-old said a couple of weeks earlier of the difference between running a race team and a football team. "It was hard to adjust to. It's better from the standpoint of, "I couldn't fix it anyway,' so I'm more relaxed at the track."

Gibbs is largely hands off when it comes to the technical side of racing.

But when he began construction of a Winston Cup team nine years ago, Gibbs employed the same philosophy that made him a Hall of Fame football coach and three-time Super Bowl winner.

Good people, not only good equipment and money, will win championships.

"Being the kind of owner I am -- not the technical guy -- my job is to pick the people, get the resources, keep everything coming," Gibbs said. "Then they've got to make it happen on the track."

Once a racing outsider and now one of the sport's most respected car owners, he is four races from winning the Winston Cup championship with driver Bobby Labonte.

"He's got the right people in the right places," said Labonte, who has driven for Gibbs since 1995 and holds a 210-point lead in the standings. "You don't have to be able to read spark plugs to run good as far as ownership goes."

This year has been a continuation of success.

Last season, Labonte finished second in the standings with five wins while teammate Tony Stewart set a rookie record with three wins and finished fourth in the standings. Stewart leads all Winston Cup drivers with five victories this season while Labonte has four. "I think it started last year," Gibbs said. "That was the first time we could seriously say that we raced for a championship. We could win races and everything."

The Mocksville, N.C., native created his team upon approval from wife, Pat, and their sons, J.D. and Coy, at the end of a 12-year coaching career with the Redskins.

Dale Jarrett drove for the new team while Jarrett's brother-in-law, Jimmy Makar, was the crew chief during the 1992 season.

Joe Gibbs Racing employed barely a dozen people, a contrast to the 185 who now work for the multimillion dollar operation that includes Craftsman Truck, Busch Grand National and NHRA teams.

"We were fortunate to get into NASCAR at the right time," said J.D. Gibbs, Joe's 31-year-old son and president of Joe Gibbs Racing. "There's no way we could start a team at this time. It just costs too much."

Jarrett was 19th in the standings that first season. He then won the Daytona 500 and finished ninth in the standings in 1993.

The foundation for long-term success was in place.

"Joe came into the sport and what I remember in the times he spoke with me, he was extremely humble," said Robert Yates, who hired Jarrett away from Gibbs before the 1995 season. "He didn't come in with an arrogant attitude and I think people have accepted him because of that."

Gibbs hired Labonte from Bill Davis Racing and won three races and finished 10th in the standings in 1995. Labonte has finished 11th, seventh, sixth and second in the standings since 1996. Only after receiving suggestions and opinions from his staff did Gibbs hire Stewart in 1998.

"In (football) we had a coaching staff of 12 guys, and I think we always made better decisions when we sat and talked about it," Gibbs said. "Eventually it falls back in your lap. You've got to make the final call.

"But in most cases when you talk your way through it and you've got real good people that are dedicated to the team -- you've got 12 minds in there, you've got seven or eight over here -- you make pretty good decisions that way."

His openness to suggestion and respect for his employees has impressed many, including Joe Washington, who played for Gibbs for four seasons with the Redskins. "What I liked most about Joe when I played for him was that he respected his players," said Washington, who has fielded a Busch Grand National team with Julius Erving in a handful of races this season.

"He respected what we had done to get to that level. He didn't want to have to be a "rah-rah' type of guy. He wanted a team of self-motivated guys, so he could spend his time making sure we had the absolute best game plan."

Though the team is reluctant to talk about a title just weeks away, one Gibbs family member isn't afraid to speak out.

"It would mean a whole lot to my dad to win the championship," said 26-year-old Coy Gibbs, Joe's youngest son. "But in another respect, his priorities are right. It's not going to rip his heart out if they don't win it.

"I think he's got a peace about him. If you win it, you win it. If you don't, you don't. I guess that just comes with age and what he's gone through and how he's learned how to manage it."