Younger Gibbs trying to match father's success

Coy Gibbs is used to having a big weight on his shoulders. As a middle linebacker at a prestigious school like Stanford, you better be able to carry your weight.

But there's nothing like the weight of a famous relative. And in football, and in NASCAR, there's no one more famous than Joe Gibbs. Coy's father won three Super Bowls as coach of the Washington Redskins, and Joe Gibbs Racing has won two of the last three Winston Cup championships.

	The No. 18 Chevrolet of Coy Gibbs sits 15th in the Busch Series standings heading to Nashville. Credit: Autostock

So we should see Coy Gibbs winning Winston Cup races pretty soon, right?

Of course, it doesn't always work that way. The youngest son of the famous father is doing his best to match dad's success, but success in Motorsports takes time.

Gibbs, 30, is a mere rookie on the NASCAR Busch Series, driving for his father's team. Saturday's Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway is the 13th race of Gibbs' Busch Series career, and that's after 58 Craftsman Truck Series starts.

So maybe it's a little too early to tell whether Gibbs is going to be a superstar driver. Heck, even he admits he's still trying to figure out how to drive stock cars.

"Last year, we tried to run five (Busch) races," Gibbs said. "Two of the five, we were pretty decent. I thought I had a clue what I needed in the car, as far as the way it needed to feel compared to a truck.

"I've struggled with that a lot. I haven't really found what I needed to make the car decent. It's uncomfortable. Maybe it's supposed to be uncomfortable. I don't know."

The transition from trucks to Busch cars is about the furthest thing from Gibbs' mind. Actually, Gibbs said, driving on the NCTS helped him get ready for the Busch cars. Before running trucks, Gibbs only drove Late Model Stock Cars or the All-Pro Series.

"That was a good move, running the trucks," Gibbs said. "The trucks are difficult to drive, way more difficult than the Busch cars are. Obviously, the competition is different stepping up, but coming out of the touring series, those cars are light years apart from a truck. Making that transition was huge for me."

PEPSI 300 AT A GLANCE  Site: Gladeville, Tenn.  Schedule: Friday, qualifying (SPEED, 4:30 p.m. ET); Saturday, race (FX, 4 p.m. ET).  Track: Nashville Superspeedway (tri-oval 1.33 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns).  Distance: 300 miles, 225 laps.   Last year: Scott Riggs led only once for the final 47 laps and recorded his first Busch Series victory in just his seventh start on the circuit at the Pepsi 300, tying the record for the quickest victory by a rookie. Johnny Rumley also won in his seventh start, in 1993.  Fast Facts: Shane Hmiel placed third for the second straight week at Talladega and has three straight top-10 finishes. ... Todd Bodine holds a 39-point lead over Jamie McMurray for first place in the standings. ... Greg Biffle recorded his first Busch Series victory in the 2001 race. ... The track replaced Nashville Speedway, where a Busch event has been held since 1984.  •  Complete Coverage

That's nothing compared to the transition from football to stock cars. Gibbs caught the racing bug while he was still at Stanford. Older brother J.D. was fooling around with some go-karts, and Coy liked going fast, too.

Gibbs knew his football career would end after his senior year at Stanford. Sure, he was a good college player, but with two aching knees, Gibbs knew the NFL wouldn't come calling.

So he looked to Motorsports, first working on Cruz Pedregon's Funny Car and then helping J.D. with his Late Models.

Finally, Coy started working on his own cars, and his driving career had started.

"It's totally different," Gibbs said. "Racing is more of a mental fatigue. Football, I can remember waking up and you're sticking to your blanket because you're so cut up. You can barely move. I've never really felt physically exerted in a race car yet."

Sure, he hasn't run a 500-mile race yet, but Gibbs has said he is mentally exhausted after Busch events these days.

That's probably from trying to figure out what to do. While a lot of drivers talk about "hitting their marks," Gibbs is a seat-of-the-pants guy. Lately, though, that seat hasn't felt very good.

Gibbs is 15th in the Busch Series points standings and is coming off two consecutive top-10 finishes, a 10th at Texas and a ninth at Talladega. Throw out a crash at Daytona and an overheating problem at Bristol, and Gibbs hasn't been that bad, with an average finish of 12.6.

He credits former driver Curtis Markham, who now serves as Gibbs' spotter, for helping him get adjusted.

"I rely on him a lot," Gibbs said. "I am clueless. Half the time, we haven't had time to practice coming into the pits under green flag. I'm like, 'OK, Curtis. Tell me when to start braking.'"

Gibbs has learned to trust Markham, and he's learning to trust teammate Mike Bliss.

"You go to one track, and you go to Mike or Curtis, and you catch one thing -- one simple sentence, and it applies to what you're doing, it can change your race around like that," Gibbs said. "A lot of people talk to you, and either you don't hear it or you don't apply it, but one little sentence, and you're going from absolute junk to running good. It's amazing how that works."

Should he listen this weekend, Gibbs could be in for a good run. He's run at Nashville before, unlike some other tracks on the Busch Series schedule. Earlier this week, Gibbs was giving rides in a pace car to local media at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Those were the first laps he had ever turned at the 1.5-mile track.

"I'm more confident (at Nashville) than coming to Charlotte, since I've never been to Charlotte," Gibbs said. "I've never been to Atlanta. A lot of the bigger tracks, I don't have a clue what to do. ... I feel pretty good about Nashville. I've run a couple races there. We should be all right.

"I struggle sometimes on the concrete tracks. It gives a totally different feel. I went to the first race Nashville ever had, and they were piling stuff up left and right in practice. I was like, 'Whoa.' I was a little hesitant of that.

"Now the track is broken in, and I've been there a couple times. I still struggled with the feel of concrete. It's a lot different than pavement."

And it's a lot different than football.