Joe Gibbs Racing's dream season watched closely by critics

[Raven]

Joe Gibbs Racing's dream season watched closely by criticsBy Rea White - Associate EditorMonday, July 14, 2008Article Rating: 5.0
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Rusty Jarrett / Getty Images for NASCAR

Team owner Joe Gibbs (left), Joe Gibbs Racing President J.D. Gibbs (center) and Kyle Busch celebrate in victory lane at Chicagoland Speedway.

In the midst of the most accomplished season any NASCAR organization has seen in recent seasons, Joe Gibbs Racing celebrates under the stern gaze of critics. Instead of relishing the year, owner Joe and team President J.D. Gibbs are defending the success of the team as rivals try to find a reason - other than pure talent and work - for its driving success.

Certainly, the team is having a banner season. Most of that comes in the form of the red-hot and talented Kyle Busch. He earned his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory Saturday night at Chicagoland Speedway. He earned his fifth Nationwide Series win Friday night at the same track, with four of those coming in JGR cars. He also has two Craftsman Truck Series wins (with Billy Ballew Motorsports) to his credit. JGR, meanwhile, has eight wins in the opening 19 Cup races and 13 in the opening 20 Nationwide events with two cars competing in that series.

While drivers watch Busch and his all-out driving style and applaud his increased maturity when it comes to mixing aggression with patience, some cast a wary glance in JGR's direction – especially when it comes to the Nationwide Series.

J.D. Gibbs, for his part, sternly addressed recent questions and pointed out to all the work going on within his team. The group switched to Toyotas this season, but the engine shop spent a year getting motors ready for the transition. And there's no doubt that two-time champion Tony Stewart, two-time Chase contender Denny Hamlin and coming-into-his-own Busch are top-tier Cup drivers.

The recent announcement that Stewart plans to leave the team following this season may only spur that team to greater success. While Stewart is winless this season, he's performed well week to week and seems to constantly be on the verge of that breakthrough victory. Few would doubt it will come, and most believe that win will happen before the 10-race Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup begins.

Last year, it was Hendrick Motorsports that ran away with the opening races of the Cup season. The group won nine of the first 12 races, with each of its four drivers going to victory lane. They were expected to excel again this season, but Busch and JGR have stolen the limelight.

Joe Gibbs says he didn't expect it to be like this.

"Certainly we were concerned, because anytime you switch manufacturers, you’re worried about getting off to fast starts," he said. "I have to tell you, I couldn’t be more impressed with Toyota and the way they work together and the partnership. I think over a period of time you get to see somebody’s spirit and the way they go about it. Our guys and their guys have kind of really meshed and worked extremely hard. Now, could I have guessed that we could have gotten off to this kind of start this year? No."

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Gibbs, however, is quick to point out that in sports a team on top of its game one day can quickly fall off pace and lose its advantage.

"That’s part of why I went back to it being a humbling thing," he said. "I know it could start tonight. That’s the way pro sports are. That’s the fascination of it. I think that’s why people and fans and everybody loves it so much. … You better be getting after it, because if you’re standing still, you’re falling behind. … We had no dream that we would have been able to get off [to a start like this], and the only thing I can attribute it to is Toyota and us and the other teammates that we have over there within Toyota, the other race teams, everyone has worked together, worked real hard, pulled Together, and we got out to a start that I wouldn’t have envisioned.”

They can also lay it at the feet of Busch, a driver who admitted frustration to entering this season with only four career wins and vowing to change that as quickly as possible. The 23-year-old is eyeing not only future championships but records as well. He wants to win, and win often. All drivers do, but Busch seems to take it a little harder than most when he isn't pulling into victory lane at the end of the race.

Still, even he's surprised by this epic opening to the season, by his stellar performance in the Cup ranks.

"[It's] just an unbelievable year and something to be really proud of and really fortunate to be involved with everything and have all these guys on my side with Job Gibbs and J.D. and [crew chief] Steve [Addington] and everybody, so it's just unbelievable," Busch said. "You know, you cherish them when you can get them, and definitely this year is one to cherish."

Especially since this one came in such stylish fashion. Thinking his shot at a win was over as he rode in second on Saturday night, Busch benefited from a late-race caution that set up the green-white-checkered finish. On that restart, he stormed to the outside of former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson and took the lead and the win.

While the team was encouraging Busch to make that move, he admits it doesn't take much to encourage him to try a daring move to take a win.

"It doesn't take a whole lot of motivation for me to get going," he said. "I mean I'm always going as hard as I can and was going to probably do what I did anyway."

So the dream season continues. Busch heads into the series final off weekend with a 262-point advantage over Hendrick's Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the driver standings.

He does so in his first season with both JGR and Addington, in a year when the team switched manufacturers. Many thought this group would take a while to hit its stride.

Not Addington. He knew what the team was getting in Busch.

But he didn't know they'd be so dominant. No one did - and perhaps that's what bolsters the team's confidence while leaving the critics grumbling.

"We knew we were getting a great driver," he said. "I felt really strong about our race team, you know, the 18 car, and really strong about the organization as a whole just from top to bottom: from top management down to fab shop, engine shop and engineering and everything else. ... I felt like we were putting good race cars out there and we were missing, you know, part of the puzzle, and never dreamed it would be like this.

"You know, I felt like we could go contend for wins week in and week out getting Kyle over there, but never winning seven races already; that's just crazy. It's awesome. It's a dream season for everybody on this 18 car."

[Dirt track racer]

Gibbs made it work when others said it was DOOMED.

[24girl]

He sure did!

[Raven]

Mr Gibbs is a smart man, no doubt about that.