Busch's character another piece to the Gibbs puzzle

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Finally, one of the worst-kept secrets of the Nextel Cup garage in recent weeks is officially official.

Kyle Busch will drive the No. 18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing, beginning next season. (Whether or not he'll drive a Chevrolet or a Toyota is a question that was left unanswered again Tuesday).

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The "announcement" came Tuesday morning at JGR headquarters, where Busch was touted as a top draft choice and trotted out in front of a modest media crowd who spent much of the next 30 minutes trying to figure out how in the heck Coach Gibbs is going to handle a mercurial stable of drivers that now includes the often petulant Busch in addition to the unpredictable, frequently moody Stewart and the sometimes immature Hamlin.

But there we go again, dishing out the media labels. J.D. Gibbs, the coach's son and team president at JGR, said that the organization and Busch are out to shed some instead.

The younger Gibbs went out of his way to repeatedly praise Busch for his apparently heretofore mostly closeted sense of humor, and to explain that at JGR, there is a vastly different outlook taken on what others often call the baffling (or worse) behavior of Stewart.

Plus, don't forget the new kid can drive. That is the most important trait that Busch and Stewart share heading into this honeymoon, according to Gibbs.

To Gibbs' credit, he candidly admitted Tuesday that he didn't know Busch well heading into this whole free-agent signing process that began when Hendrick Motorsports, where Busch now is employed, announced that it was hiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Busch's expense.

To get to know more about Busch, Gibbs naturally turned to Stewart and Hamlin. And they gave him an earful to contemplate.

"Both Denny and Tony said, 'Look, we're telling you, off the track and on the track, there's no guy out there who has the talent that this guy does. With him on board we think it gives us three guys who can give us a chance to win week in and week out.' Hearing that from them meant a lot to me, because they're really the guys who dictate our future," Gibbs said.

"And I want to say that getting to know Kyle has been kind of special. He's got a great sense of humor, he's sharp, and I think he's really passionate about what he does. He does really remind me a lot of Tony, which is kind of frightening. But we have a great relationship with Tony, and we think we'll have the same thing with Kyle. We want this to be home for the rest of his career. He's only 22 years old, so we think we've got a real special gift here in Kyle and he'll be a big part of our future here at JGR."

The bottom line in regards to the three-year contract Busch signed with JGR is that he is considered a significant upgrade over J.J. Yeley, the driver he replaces. To be fair to the personable Yeley, he wasn't given much time to prove himself at the Cup level. But in 64 career starts, Yeley has no wins, one top-five finish (this year at the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte) and four top-10s. He's currently 21st in driver points.

Busch, though eight years and seven months Yeley's junior, has in 100 career Cup starts posted four victories, 24 top-fives and 43 top-10s. This season alone, he has one victory, five top-fives and 12 top-10s. He's currently eighth in points.

"As a race team, first and foremost, you've got to win races and you've got to go fast," Gibbs said. "You've have that chance to win championships. If you don't put yourself in position to do that, you won't have sponsors, you'll lose team guys -- and you won't be here very long.

"So for us, first and foremost, just as it is in the NFL and other sports, you have to perform on the track. And clearly, Kyle does that -- as well as Tony and as well as Denny."

Gibbs signs Busch

Kyle Busch has signed with Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the No. 18 Chevrolet beginning in 2008.

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The talent obviously is there for JGR to soar to tremendous heights. After all, this is the same organization that ran 1-2 just last Sunday at Watkins Glen, where Stewart won and Hamlin finished second.

But there is an underlying concern among the general masses that having Busch and Stewart operating under the same roof is sort of like storing lots of combustible materials right next to each other in a hot room. Isn't there the risk of a mass explosion at some point in the future?

Busch tried to ease those fears by insisting that the guy who left his Hendrick crew hanging by storming out of sight when there were still laps left to be run in his damaged car at Texas wasn't the real him. He's also attempting to distance himself from the guy who took some parting shots at the Hendrick organization and feuded with his own brother, Kurt, earlier this season.

"I feel like being 22, I've got a lot of time -- well, not a lot, but I've got some time and a lot of room to grow to become more responsible and more mature, things like that," Busch said. "Being thrown in this light has definitely shown a different aspect of life toward me and stuff like that for the past couple of years, and I haven't probably shown my full potential. But there's plenty of it out there. And I feel like I can -- not necessarily change -- but probably bring out more of who I am.

"We're trying to bring out the real Kyle Busch to show everybody what that's all about. I guess I'm different when the camera lights shine on me than I am behind closed doors."

Who better to show him the way to true adulthood than Stewart, whose tirades when the camera lights shine are the stuff of legend?

"I think if you offered Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch to most teams out there, they'd take that and make it work at all costs," said Gibbs, dismissing the concern that his family's operation might now have too many egos front and center.

"I feel good about the fact that Kyle is 22 years old. Denny's young. In a way we laugh, but Tony is our mentor. But he has matured a lot. He's able to share of lot of what he's experienced along the way, in terms of what to do and what not to do. I think these guys really put us in good position as a team, as we move forward."

Gibbs' father, the coach of the NFL's Washington Redskins, couldn't be at Tuesday's news conference because he's more than a little busy right now in his other job. But he made it abundantly clear how he stands on the issue of handling this considerable cadre of driver talent.

He's going to let J.D. handle it.

"I got to thinking about this: We've got Tony, and the way that Tony acts sometimes," Coach Gibbs said. "And we've found that Denny is no piece of cake. And now we've got Kyle Busch? J.D., good luck!"

It looks as if he's going to need it.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.