Team has come a long way since 1991, has high hopes for 2015
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The spotlight shone down on Joe Gibbs Racing during the first stop of this week's Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour as its contingent of drivers, crew chiefs and team executives congregated on-stage to discuss the 2015 season. It's sure to only get brighter until the Daytona 500.
The organization, once a mom-and-pop shop, has evolved into a Fortune 500 company. That transformation was evident when Carl Edwards joined JGR in a fourth car, but the team's evolution has been a constant force.
From a one-car team in 1991 with less than 25 employees to today's four-car group with nearly 500 people, JGR has joined Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing as teams that field four full-time cars at NASCAR's highest level.
The Edwards addition had some folks whispering of a Hendrick copy-cat, but make no mistake about this group -- it is uniquely Joe Gibbs.
"I think in any pro sport, it's hard to stay at the top," Gibbs said. "Sometimes you can hit it and then fall away, but to stay up there consistently is the key. I think what Jimmie Johnson has done speaks for itself. That's what everybody else would like to do.
"But I don't think we've patterned us after Hendrick. I think we patterned us after ourselves."
Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth comprise Joe Gibbs Racing, and they own a combined 107 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins. Hamlin advanced to the Championship 4 last year, Kenseth won seven races and finished second in the standings to Jimmie Johnson in 2013, and both Edwards and Busch have made title pushes in the past.
All four drivers qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last year, although Edwards did so with Roush Fenway Racing. So although Gibbs didn't model his organization after Hendrick Motorsports, it's not too difficult to project similar results.
"Anytime you can compare yourself to Hendrick, that's a good thing," Hamlin said, wearing a grin. "For all of us, this is a change for sure, but the best drivers will always find a way to be successful. We expect success."
"We've got a lot of new people and a lot of people who have a lot of different ideas," Kenseth added. "We feel like we're all going to be better."
So what does it all mean?
Well, no one knows yet. The drivers expect to compete for wins. Ownership hopes to have a driver (or two) in the Championship 4 again in 2015.
But we don't know yet. For today, in January, we can project and predict. But soon enough, the engines will roar, the green flag will drop, and then we'll know for sure.
"I think any time you make a big decision like this, you're always nervous about it," Gibbs said. "But the thing about sports is, you're going to find out when we get out there and start racing. Everybody's going to say 'That was not smart' or they're going to say 'Man, that was smart.'
"And I like that because you don't guess about it. It's going to happen on the track, and we're all going to get to see it. I love that part about our sport. They keep score. So we're going to find out in how we do. And I feel real good about it."