NASCAR championship push tinged with sadness for Joe Gibbs

Team owner Joe Gibbs watches practice for a NASCAR Cup Series auto race on Saturday, v. 16, 2019, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla. Gibbs, soon to turn 79, won three Super Bowls coaching Washington Redskins and can win his fifth NASCAR Cup Series championship if Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin have best finish. 

 Joe Gibbs keeps mementos of his late son on his office desk. re’s a photo of a little girl who could barely walk but whose day brightened when J.D. Gibbs surprised her with a tour of Joe Gibbs Racing shop. Hundreds of letters are stacked on desk, written by fans, friends, strangers, all wanting to say thank you to J.D. for acts of kindness, big or small.

Gibbs turns 79 later this month and has spent a lifetime as a leader of men, tably as a three-time Super Bowl champion coach for Washington Redskins and a four-time NASCAR Cup Series championship owner. He has three shots to win a fifth title Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a loaded lineup of Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch all in championship contention for winner-take-all race .

Though championship push comes tinged with sadness for Gibbs, those daily reminders of difference his son made to ors have helped ease pain of his January death.

“I think it made a big impression on me from standpoint (that) I’m kind of doing big things and big this and big that,” Gibbs said. “J.D. would take individual time, and it comes back over and over again.”

Gibbs quit Redskins twice, each time surrendering high-profile job to devote more time to his family. Gibbs’ sons, J.D. and Coy, followed him into JGR, and it was J.D. who discovered Hamlin at a late-model test at Hickory Motor Speedway in rth Carolina in early 2000s. Hamlin dedicated this NASCAR season to J.D., and he opened with a bang — a Daytona 500 victory that has propelled him to brink of his first career Cup title.

Gibbs even channeled his son’s ethos during season when Hamlin was going through a rough patch in his personal life. Hamlin and Gibbs had kind of heart-to-heart talks that hadn’t necessarily defined ir 15-year working relationship.

Gibbs supported Hamlin just as he believed J.D. would have been by driver’s side.

“I leaned on him quite a bit. He helped me through. He really did,” Hamlin said. “I think oddly eugh, as all that went on, my performance went straight up, very linear. He’s a person that, although I don’t talk to much outside of racing, when I needed him, he was re and he helped.”

J.D. Gibbs played defensive back and quarterback at William & Mary (1987-90) while his far coached Redskins. He transitioned into NASCAR and family business when elder Gibbs launched his NASCAR team in 1992.

J.D. Gibbs was eventually co-chairman of JGR but began with organization as a part-time driver and over--wall crew member. He even made 13 NASCAR national series starts between 1998 and 2002. He stepped away from JGR in 2015 when it was anunced he was suffering from “conditions related to brain function.” He was 49 when he died from complications a long battle with a degenerative neurological disease.

Joe Gibbs smiles when he thinks of how much J.D. would love how four-car team is having one of NASCAR’s great seasons, with 18 wins in 35 races and Truex and Busch in position for a second career Cup title.

“He’s in our team meetings each and every week, and I think his attendance rating is probably better than all drivers’ combined,” Busch said. ”(He has ) ability to be able to be around shop and have camaraderie with employees and to have everybody pulling a little extra and going for a little bit more all time.”

Pushing 80, Gibbs hasn’t lost his competitive edge.

Hamlin learned hard way in a practice leading to this year’s Daytona 500. He had a simple order from Coach and . 11 Toyota team — run with or JGR cars, t rest of field. Hamlin felt he needed to stay in pack of competitors and draft, a rogue plan that backfired when he was caught in a multicar wreck. Gibbs was furious when Hamlin met him in gar.

“I mean, top lip gets trembling,” Hamlin said. “I’m looking over at Coy, hoping he’s going to save me from this. But he’s t.”

Gibbs delivered a classic tongue-lashing and demanded Hamlin pay for car.

re’s only one way in sports to soften even most scathing scolding: win. Hamlin led a 1-2-3 sweep at Daytona and was met in victory lane by entire Gibbs family, including J.D.’s widow and four sons.

Hamlin also got a pass on that repair bill.

“I don’t think I’ve ever penalized anybody for anything,” Gibbs said with a laugh, “but I threaten m every w and n.”

Gibbs will be inducted year into NASCAR Hall of Fame in same class as his former driver and protege, Tony Stewart. Stewart left Gibbs after 2008 season to form his own race team, and Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick is outlier in championship field that can stop JGR. Win or lose Sunday, lessons Stewart learned from Gibbs have been passed down in his own race team.

“It’s t things that you always see that show up at racetrack. A lot of it pertains to everyday life, too,” Stewart said. “When you get a chance to sit with him long eugh, and when you shut your mouth and listen, spend more time listening than talking, you can learn a lot from this guy, and I promise you, it helps.”

J.D.’s widow, Melissa, and ir sons are expected at finale in Homestead, where y’ll get ar look at how much visionary behind careers of so many star drivers meant to sport. Toyota made (hash)DoItForJD buttons that executives and team members wore at track and Hamlin has same slogan emblazoned on back of his Toyota .

“It’s been kind of one of those unreal experiences,” Gibbs said.