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NASCAR

Steady improvement is hallmark of Joe Gibbs Racing

By SceneDaily.com

Jan 15, 2009

To fully appreciate the dominance Joe Gibbs Racing’s NASCAR Nationwide Series teams showed in 2008, turn back the clock to the turn of the century, when JGR first ran a car in what was then known as the Busch Series.

JGR bought the assets of Bobby Labonte’s Busch team and intended to run one car in the series. But then Gary Bechtel’s Diamond Ridge Motorsports team became available, so JGR purchased that organization, too.

So in 1999, two JGR teams were housed in the old Diamond Ridge shop in Charlotte, N.C. Steve deSouza was chosen by Joe and J.D. Gibbs to run the Busch team, but things didn’t go as smoothly as they do now.

“We had Gary’s group of guys, which is one corporate culture,” deSouza said. “We had the group of guys that we were hiring and integrating in ... and then we merged all that together. It was a blender. I remember there were times I’m thinking, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’”

The crew chiefs for both cars often didn’t agree, as each one had his way of doing things. Each of the teams sided with their crew chief, so problems deepened.

Over time, though, the JGR corporate culture was ingrained in each employee. Over time, the organization’s Busch team employees got along better. Over time, JGR got better.

The engineering got better, the chassis got better, the bodies got better – the drivers got better, too.

Veteran Doug Hewitt joined the team to run the competition department. Crew chief Dave Rogers came on after a stint with the Cup team, and up-and-coming crew chief Jason Ratcliff was hired.

There were victories through the years, eight in all, but no championships.

“A few years ago, I saw it. It doesn’t show up on the race track, but I could see it in here that we were starting to jell pretty well,” deSouza said. “We were making some gains. Our window was still pretty big, and maybe we were hitting it every week, but we were gaining on it. Dave, Jason and the engineering group started focusing in, and they closed that window down to where we now have a pretty good idea of what we need to do to be competitive.”

In 2008, it all came to the surface. Joe Gibbs Racing cars won 19 of the 35 Nationwide races, and its No. 20 Toyota won the owners championship. It was a stunning season, one filled with glory and controversy and struggles.

The season started with two consecutive victories by Tony Stewart and continued with a six-race winning streak from the first Texas race to Darlington. That run was halted by JGR driver Kyle Busch, who happened to be driving a Braun Racing Toyota at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

No matter, JGR’s Denny Hamlin won the following week at Dover, and two weeks later, 18-year-old rookie Joey Logano won at Kentucky for the No. 20 team. After a win by Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards, JGR ripped off three more wins in a row.

What could slow the team down? Not much, though NASCAR tried. Before the race at O’Reilly Raceway Park, NASCAR made a rule change designed to lower Toyota’s horsepower.

Busch then won the race at ORP the following weekend.

The rule change, though, had a lasting effect. JGR failed to win the four races after ORP, including a race won by Edwards at Michigan. After that event, NASCAR measured horsepower of several cars via a chassis dynamometer.

But several JGR employees tried to alter the horsepower numbers of their engines, hoping NASCAR would give them a break if it was determined Toyotas didn’t have as much power as expected.

The move backfired badly when NASCAR discovered magnets under the gas pedal. Six JGR employees, including Rogers and Ratcliff, were indefinitely suspended.

Hewitt and engineer Joel Wideman filled in as crew chiefs, and the team barely skipped a beat.

“You know, that was a hard situation,” team President J.D. Gibbs said. “I think that was encouraging for our guys. … To go back and have the guys at the shop step up – some guys have never been on the road before – and do things that were asked of them that weren't comfortable and were difficult, that meant a lot.

“I think that kind of for us is going to make it a real strong foundation for years to come. Those guys went through hard times together, came out of it and were still able to win that championship.”

Before the penalty, JGR won 14 of the 25 races. After, it won five of 10 events.

And after the penalty, not a single employee who was suspended was fired.

“Just like when your kid does something wrong, there’s a penalty and a price,” deSouza said. “That has been implemented. At the end of the day, [team owner Joe and J.D. Gibbs’] decision was, ‘Let’s surround the guys. Let’s let them know that they’re part of the family.’”

That’s part of the corporate culture, a culture that begins with the Gibbs’ deep religious faith. At the team’s Monday morning meetings with its executive board, the management team prays for their employees, their drivers, their sponsors, their company.

DeSouza said the team is built around people, and the Gibbses have a keen eye for getting the right people and then putting them in the right place.

“J.D. is street-smart about this,” deSouza said. “He’s got a sixth sense to get people in the right places.

“Our desire is to maximize the potential of a person, not use them up and throw them out. How do we get them and how do we grow them to the next level? How do we make their career and their life, personal and professional, how can we walk alongside and coach them up?”

Employees pay back that loyalty with a work ethic as good as any team in the sport.

“I feel quite certain that our building was occupied more nights than any other race shop in the business,” Rogers said. “Our guys worked. They never said, ‘Close enough is close enough.’ They worked until we said, ‘That’s a race-winning race car.’ I really appreciate that loyalty from those guys.”

The drivers noticed the hard work, too.

“The big pat on the back and the big support needs to go back to the guys at the shop, Dave Rogers and Jason Ratcliff who weren't here the rest of the year, and for the rest of the guys that stepped up for the rest of the year to make that thing go fast and stay up front,” Busch said.

At the Nationwide awards banquet in November, Rogers named every member of the No. 20 team during his speech.

“The commitment of these men is unprecedented,” Rogers said.

And for one season, so was their success.

“We got a taste of it,” deSouza said. “Now we want to do it more.”