Joe Gibbs
Joe Gibbs has brought a lot to the sport, from the publicity he received with his first involvement announcement and scores of new fans to assisting in bringing non-automotive sponsors into the sport. His first Funny Car with Cruz Pedregon at the wheel featured McDonalds as its sponsor, and notched twenty-one NHRA national event wins along with a NHRA National Funny Car Championship.
Gibbs has often compared a football team and a race car team as being alike, football has a general manager and racing a crew chief, but both outline the “game plan”, set the agenda and handle the day to day duties.
While still in high school and college in Southern California, Joe could also be found on one of the local drag strips, first in his gas coupe and later in a gas dragster. He has stated that the fastest he believes ever went was about 145 mph, he has always loved the sport.
In 1955 after he retired from Pro Football coaching the first time, he founded his Joe Gibbs Drag Racing team and fielded three cars in it, a AA/Funny Car driven by Cruz Pedregon, a AA/Fuel Dragster driven by Cory McClenathan and a Pro Stock Firebird driven by Jim Yates.
Pedregon won Gibbs first NHRA national event at the 1995 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, CA and followed up later that year with a win at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, IN. McClenathan posted Gibbs first Fuel Dragster win in 1997 at the NHRA Mile High Nationals in Denver, CO and followed that with a sweep of the famed Western Swing and a win at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, IN. Yates brought the team 2 NHRA Pro Stock Championships in 1996 and 1997. Over the span of the next six years, the team posted a total of thirty-three NHRA National Event wins. In 2000, Joe withdrew from drag racing participation to concentrate on his NASCAR involvement. However, his past association with drag racing continues to draw new fan attention.
In addition to his involvement with Pro Football, Drag Racing and NASCAR, in 1992 Joe branched out into motorcycle racing forming the JGRMX team to compete in AMA motocross and supercross championships.
Adding to these accomplishments, in 1992, Gibbs co-authored Fourth and One, and in 2003 he co-authored Racing to Win, with both books resembling a business, life how-to and motivational guide based upon his own career.
Joe Gibbs list of honors is also quite impressive and its range is one-of-a-kind:
NFL Superbowl champion 1992, 1987 and 1991
NFL Coach of the Year 1982 and 1983
NFL 100 All-Time Team
NASCAR Cup Series Championship five times
NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship four times
Pro Football Hall of Fame 1996
Washington Ring of Fame
NASCAR Hall of Fame 2020