NFL Big Wheels Shift Gears to Satisfy Driving Ambition

What do Walter Payton, Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Joe Gibbs have in common, other than being in the NFL Hall of Fame, or certain to be?

All are owners or co-owners of major auto racing teams.

As are NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh and former running back Joe Washington.

What is the attraction that high-speed race cars hold for football players?

“If you think about it, the parallels are remarkable,” says Washington, who never even thought about racing when he was an All-American back at Oklahoma and an all-pro with the Washington Redskins.

“The nervous excitement in anticipation of the opening kickoff in a big game is the same as it is when the cars come barreling down the straightway heading for the first turn in a big race. Everyone involved knows there’s a chance of injury, or an accident, but when the whistle blows or the green flag drops, the butterflies are the same. Guys on the football field race pell-mell to smash into each other, and the guys in the cars put the pedal to the metal and gas it.”

Washington and basketball legend Julius Erving will debut their new minority-owned team, Washington Erving Motorsports, during Daytona Speed Weeks in February. They will field a Winston Cup team with Rick Bickle as the driver and a Busch Grand National car for rookie Jimmy Foster. Both will drive Ford Tauruses.

“Where I grew up in Texas, all anybody in high school talked about was football,” Washington said. “Then, when I got to Oklahoma, I thought I did about everything. I played football, baseball, track, all kinds of things. I dreamed about being in the Olympics, playing in the Super Bowl, things like that.

“But not once did I ever think about getting into motor racing. When I talk to my old football buddies and tell them about the team Dr. J and I have put together, they shake their heads at the thought of me being involved.

“But when I saw my first race at Atlanta a couple of years ago, I found I could really relate to race drivers. Most of them are little guys like me [Washington is 5 feet 10] and they wear helmets and all kind of special equipment, just like we did. And they’re both contact sports, whether you like to say it or not. When a car crashes, and the driver walks away, I can relate to that. I’ve never crashed a car, but I’ve taken some serious hits.”

Although Washington comes into motor racing as a neophyte, he has had some significant coaching from Gibbs, who was also his coach on two of Gibbs’ three Super Bowl teams in Washington.

“We’re probably 18 months ahead of where we would have been without Gibbs’ help,” Washington said. “The same competitive spirit that made him so successful in football is no different in racing. You can feel it when you’re around him. It’s contagious, and it’s helped our team.”

Gibbs, who retired from the NFL in 1992, after winning his third Super Bowl, took over a Winston Cup team in NASCAR and two NHRA drag-racing teams a couple of years later. And in turning to racing, he was actually returning to his roots. He was a hot-rodder before ever attaining fame as a football coach.

“I got hooked on cars when I was in high school in Santa Fe Springs,” Gibbs said. “I had a ’33 Ford Victoria with an Oldsmobile engine, a real street rod.

“I was one of those ‘50s kids. You know, fast cars, rolled-up jeans, T-shirts, ‘Meet you at the hamburger stand.’ I don’t care what else you do, once you get hooked on cars, you’re hooked for the rest of your life.”

While working as a graduate coaching assistant at San Diego State, Gibbs drove a dragster on Southern California strips.

“I wound up coaching because I wasn’t good enough to play [in the NFL] and I didn’t have the money to race,” he said. “We blew up our dragster in the early ‘60s and didn’t have the money to get it fixed.

“That’s when I took up coaching full time, but I always had a burning desire to get back into drag racing. Now that I’m back in it, I can honestly say that I’ve lived in the best of both worlds, football and racing.”

Gibbs, who will field a variety of equipment this year, was an almost immediate success in racing. In his second Daytona 500, in 1993, his driver, Dale Jarrett, won stock car racing’s biggest prize. Since then, his Winston Cup cars have won seven races, most recently the 1997 season finale with Bobby Labonte, and more than $6 million in prize money.

In drag racing, after taking over the McDonald’s racing team in 1995, his drivers--Cory McClenathan in top fuel and Cruz Pedregon in a funny car--have been consistent winners. Both won the prestigious U.S. Nationals, Pedregon in 1995 and McClenathan in 1996.

“He has a way of getting your adrenaline flowing,” said McClenathan, who last year became the first drag racer to exceed 320 mph.

Gibbs also sees similarities in football and racing.

“The crew chief, like a football coach, prepares the game plan,” he said. “The driver, like the quarterback, executes the play, pulls the trigger and makes it happen.”

Labonte will return as Gibbs’ Winston Cup driver this year in a Pontiac Grand Prix, but the team also will field a Busch Grand National car for Indy Racing League champion Tony Stewart. A former U.S. Auto Club triple champion in midget, sprint and Silver Crown cars, Stewart plans to move up to Winston Cup in 1999 as part of Gibbs’ two-car team.

Being a car owner, as opposed to being a coach, has given Gibbs a different perspective.

“I never understood why Jack Kent Cooke [the late owner of the Washington Redskins] got such a kick out of it,” he said. “When you put something together and then win at it, you get so excited. I understand Mr. Cooke’s reactions a little better now.”

Celebrity races in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach led Payton and Montana into motor racing.

Montana was still playing with the San Francisco 49ers when he drove in the 1982 pro-celebrity race. When they heard of it, the 49ers showed Montana a clause in his contract that prohibited him from living dangerously and wouldn’t let him race again.

“That race in Long Beach really snagged me for good,” Montana said. “Those 10 laps were the shortest time span in my life. When it was over, I was so depressed. After all the hype and driving lessons and practice laps, it felt like when the Super Bowl was over.”

Montana became part owner in CART in 1995 when Chip Ganassi, a fellow Pennsylvanian, brought him aboard with the Target team.

“It’s something I had in the back of the mind for quite a while,” Montana said. “When Ganassi took me to Indy for the 500 and I watched those cars going down the straightaway, I got goose bumps up and down my spine. Chip took me to the pit wall, out where the board man stands, and, oh my! I was hooked.

“I really thought I was going to have a lot of fun working with the team, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t realize how much fun. I have a lot of respect for these guys. People don’t realize how physically demanding it is inside the car.

“You can’t compare a football athlete with a basketball athlete or a race car driver. Each has different demands. You use different parts of your body. But I’ll tell you, it’s an athletic event, driving a race car.”

Montana, who won four Super Bowls as the 49er quarterback, has had much the same success with Ganassi’s team. In his first season, Jimmy Vasser won the championship, with Alex Zanardi third. And in his second, last season, Zanardi won, with Vasser third.

“When I got my ring after Jimmy won the championship, I felt just like I did when I got my first Super Bowl ring,” Montana said. “I really felt proud. You know, racing’s like football in that any player knows he can get hurt and there is a certain amount of danger. It gives you kind of an understanding of what these drivers go through.”

Vasser says one of the perks of having Montana around is that he gets to play catch with him.

“How many people, besides Jerry Rice, can say they caught passes from Joe Montana?” Vasser asked, then added, “I don’t think it’s a coincidence we started winning after Joe got involved.”

Payton, still pro football’s all-time rushing leader after 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears, retired in 1987 with one Super Bowl championship. He drove in the 1988 and 1989 Long Beach celebrity races and immediately decided he wanted more. After driving in the Sports Car Club of America’s Sports 2000 series for a couple of years, he stepped up to the Trans-Am series in 1992 and 1993, then hung up his helmet to become a co-owner with Dale Coyne in 1994.

“Whether it’s football or business, which is how I relate to racing, I have to be competitive,” Payton said. “Racing enables me to combine my talents and experience as well as keeping me in a sport I love.”

Michel Jourdain Jr., of Mexico City, and Dennis Vitolo are drivers for the Payton Coyne team. Jourdain, 21, became the youngest driver to start a CART event when he raced in Long Beach in 1996 at 19. Vitolo’s car will carry No. 34, Payton’s old uniform number with the Bears.

Marino, the veteran Miami Dolphin quarterback, is joining Winston Cup driver Bill Elliott as co-owner of a Ford Taurus to be driven by rookie Jerry Nadeau. Elliott also will continue to drive for his own team.

Harbaugh, of the Indianapolis Colts, is a partner in an Indy Racing League team that includes Terry Lingner, producer of ESPN’s SpeedWeek program for 14 years, Indianapolis businessman Gary Pedigo and Doug Boles, a staff member for Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith.

Scott Goodyear, twice a runner-up in the Indianapolis 500--to Al Unser Jr. in 1992 and Arie Luyendyk last May--has switched from Treadway Racing to Harbaugh’s team, and will debut in the IRL opener Jan. 24 at Orlando, Fla.

Mark Rypien, yet another NFL quarterback, was a co-owner with Greg Pollex of cars driven by Chad Little in Busch and Winston Cup races for the last five years, but the team was recently sold to Roush Racing. Rypien, who attended few races, was a classmate of Roush at Washington State.

As a further extension of football’s fascination with motor racing, the NFL Players Assn. will be a sponsor of Richard Petty’s Winston Cup cars, driven by Kyle Petty and John Andretti, and a Craftsman Truck driven by Jimmy Hensley.

“There are a lot of things the NFL has in common with NASCAR,” said Doug Allen, assistant executive director of the NFL Players Assn. “We have a lot of players who are fans, guys who enjoy watching another contact sport. And more importantly, we’re in the brand business and NASCAR and the Petty family are great vehicles for putting our brand name in front of consumers.”

The NFLPA got its feet wet last year by sponsoring Bryan Wall in the Busch Grand National North series and the experience led to a partnership with Petty Enterprises.

“We did two TV races with Bryan, with an in-car camera, and it taught us the benefits of the synergy between professional football and stock car racing,” said Allen, a former linebacker with the Buffalo Bills. “By the time the Busch season ended, we knew we wanted to do something with Winston Cup for 1998. We’re going to make the Pettys and the No. 44 car part of the program at the NFL’s Super Bowl party in San Diego.”

The NFL paint scheme and logo for Petty’s car will be unveiled at the player association’s party Jan. 23, with both Richard and Kyle on hand for the promotion.

“You’d be surprised how many of our players are planning on being at Daytona [Feb. 15] for the 500,” Allen said. “There’s a lot of mutual admiration between the players and the drivers. It wouldn’t be surprising if some of the players wind up on pit crews for the race.”