Gibbs Was on Track at Start

Rarely has anyone made the change from one sport to another, as Joe Gibbs did from professional football to motor racing, with such quick success.

Since leaving the Washington Redskins after coaching three Super Bowl champions to run a NASCAR Winston Cup team in 1992, Gibbs’ drivers have won 40 races in 578 starts and taken home $62,701,004 in purses.

In the team’s second Daytona 500, Joe Gibbs Racing won stock car racing’s Super Bowl when Dale Jarrett passed Dale Earnhardt on the final lap of the 1993 race.

In 2000, Bobby Labonte won NASCAR’s Winston Cup championship and in 2002 Tony Stewart won the same title for the man who has always been known as “Coach” in stock car racing circles.

“Now Joe’s got a ring for every finger,” Stewart said at the awards banquet in New York. “Three for the Super Bowl and two for Winston Cup.”

Stewart, who drives Gibbs’ No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet, lauded his boss’ decision to return to coaching.

“It’s exciting to see a guy who is 63 years old and who has worked hard all his life and doesn’t want to stop working,” Stewart said. “A guy like him isn’t ready to step down and ride it out the rest of his life.

“He’s ready to get back to work and get after it and play with the big boys again.”

Labonte, driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries car since joining Gibbs in 1995, agreed.

“Donna [Labonte’s wife] and I think this is the coolest thing we’ve heard in a long time,” he said. “The race team will be just fine.”

In a sport where teams and drivers are often moving around, Gibbs had had only Jarrett, Labonte and Stewart in his 12 seasons.

Labonte replaced Jarrett in 1995 and Stewart made it a two-driver team in 1999.

Gibbs’ return to the Redskins as head coach, announced Wednesday, is not expected to have an effect on his race team.

J. D. Gibbs, Joe’s oldest son, will continue as team president, with former crew chief Jimmy Makar becoming senior vice president of racing. Joe Gibbs remains as chief executive.

“This move gives our sponsors added value in terms of gaining national exposure,” J.D. said in a team statement. “JGR is a strong organization and it’s in capable hands. I feel great about the state of this race team and its future success on the race track.”

Coy Gibbs, Joe’s youngest son, drove his rookie season last year for the JGR team in the NASCAR Busch series.

In the 1999 season, Gibbs acquired the assets of Diamond Ridge Motorsports in the Busch series, but he did not field a team until 2001. Mike McLaughlin scored the team’s first victory at Talladega, Ala., but last year the drivers were Mike Bliss, a former NASCAR Craftsman Truck champion, and the younger Gibbs.

In addition to his stock car ventures, the elder Gibbs also fielded two teams in the National Hot Rod Assn. drag racing series for parts of six seasons from 1995 to 2000.