Joe Gibbs Racing Team
Joe Gibbs Racing is a group of NASCAR racing teams owned and operated by former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, who first started racing on the NASCAR circuit in 1991, and J. D. Gibbs, his son. Headquartered in Huntersville, North Carolina, near Charlotte, the team amassed three Sprint Cup Championships since the year 2000 and participated in other lower-tier NASCAR series for driver development, winning one championship in the East Division of the NASCAR Camping World Series.
Despite past success with General Motors, winning its three championships with Pontiacs and Chevrolets, the team switched to newcomer Toyota in 2008. They currently field the #11 FedEx Toyota Camry for Denny Hamlin, the #18 M&M's/Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry for Kyle Busch, and the #20 The Home Depot Toyota Camry for Joey Logano in the Sprint Cup Series, and two teams in the Nationwide Series with primarily its Sprint Cup drivers, and Brad Coleman. JGR also fields the #18 Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil Toyota Camry for development driver Matt DiBenedetto in the Camping World East Series.
After JGR purchased the team from Gary Bechtel in 2000, the team got sponsorship from Porter-Cable. Despite missing three races, driver Jeff Purvis had eleven top-tens and one pole, finishing 11th in points. The team switched to #20 for 2001, and Mike McLaughlin was named the driver. Without a major sponsor, McLaughlin was able to win the NASCAR Subway 300 and was sixth in points when Gibbs decided to shut down his team because of sponsorship problems. He moved to the 18, and finished seventh in points that year. Coy Gibbs ran five races in the #20 in 2002, with sponsorship from ConAgra Foods. His best finish was a 14th at Kentucky Speedway.
On August 17, 2008 both Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide cars (18,20) were found to have illegal magnets attached to the pedals, which were used so that the pedal couldn't be pushed all the way down, so the car would give a false horsepower reading when attached to a dyno machine. Three weeks earlier, all Toyota Camrys in the Nationwide Series, were ordered by NASCAR to reduce Horsepower by 15 hp (11 kW) to make the Camrys more equal in power to the Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge race cars. It is alleged that JGR members attached the magnets to the pedals to give the dyno (horsepower tester) a false reading. Joe Gibbs and son, J.D Gibbs, were outraged about the incident, citing that an internal investigation within JGR will take place to find out who was involved and said that punishment will be handed out to anyone involved. NASCAR is expected to hand out the penalties to JGR by August 19, 2008.
In 2009, Brad Coleman will return to Joe Gibbs Racing and the #20 will be piloted by the team of Hamlin, Logano, and Coleman.
Joe Gibbs Racing Team Video
