‘Player’s coach’ approach helps Coach Gibbs guide team through turbulence

The first time that Joe Gibbs Racing dealt with internal driver strife was also the first season that the organization dealt with having teammates. This may come as no surprise given that Tony Stewart was the key piece in JGR's expansion to two cars in the 1999 season. Hired for the team's new No. 20 ride, the mercurial superstar nicknamed "Smoke" ignited the tensions at Homestead-Miami Speedway when he bumped teammate Bobby Labonte out of the groove and then scooted away to the third victory of his rookie season. "That little (expletive) better run off to Ray Evernham before I get my hands on him," the typically mild-mannered Labonte radioed his No. 18 team after the incident with Stewart, who reportedly was being courted by Evernham for a new Dodge team. RELATED: Teammate tiffs, through the years | Cup Series standings There was no doubt that Joe Gibbs was immediately aware of the suddenly very public rift. The team owner was in the broadcast booth as an NBC announcer and addressed the awkwardness in real time on national TV. "Both these guys are very, very competitive," Gibbs said. "We've never had a deal at our race team. It's whoever can win it. That was a very close call there, and I think both these guys are very aggressive and wanting to win it." With only a race remaining in the season, the feud burned out quickly. Labonte won the 2000 championship, and Stewart was crowned in 2002 and '05. The JGR duo got along swimmingly for the better part of seven seasons (as Stewart regularly feuded with other drivers, the media and NASCAR). More than a quarter-century later, JGR remains a powerhouse in spite of its occasionally unwanted turns as NASCAR's Team Turmoil. The latest intrasquad blowup -- last Sunday's skirmish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway between Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs -- is part and parcel of why Joe Gibbs has won a combined eight championships as an NFL coach and a NASCAR team owner. As long as they produce results, his drivers and players are allowed the latitude to be themselves, even if that means repercussions from when they invariably step over the line. In professional sports, it's known as being a "player's coach," and the Washington football rosters that won three Super Bowls for Gibbs are indicative of the laissez-faire approach to team management. It's highly unlikely that colorful and controversial stars such as Gary Clark, John Riggins and Dexter Manley would have flourished with coaches who were rigid disciplinarians. There's a similar through line in JGR's NASCAR lineups. For every Labonte, Matt Kenseth and Christopher Bell who have won for JGR with a soft-spoken and steady understatement, the team equally has embraced the combustible personalities who have mixed in some headaches amid their trips to Victory Lane. After a 10-year tour of duty with at least one annual hullabaloo, Stewart's last JGR season in 2008 was the team's first with Kyle Busch -- who made just as many headlines during 15 seasons of smashing guitars, flipping off former team members and throwing punches. Bridging those two eras in his 20th full Cup season at JGR (and signed on for at least two more), Hamlin has grown into relishing his role as the outspoken villain with a podcast that he uses to push people's buttons. MORE: Hamlin wants leadership to step in | Inside the NHMS tangle There are some fresh wrinkles with the latest dust-up at JGR -- Hamlin, who is trying to win a championship, spun Ty Gibbs, who is the team owner's grandson -- but the party line remained the same from the "player's coach" who calls the shots. Or just "Coach," as Joe Gibbs is most commonly known. "Those guys are the ones driving the cars, so those guys will get together on their own and figure it out," he said after New Hampshire. If that sounded familiar, it might be because Gibbs said something similar a week earlier when Bell won at Bristol Motor Speedway after recently lambasting his team's strategy. "I let them handle it," Gibbs said. "I really do." It's his tried-and-true mantra -- so much that he essentially said the same thing nearly 26 years ago during that Homestead broadcast. Explaining how he navigated the leadership of diverse personnel through disagreements and tumult, Gibbs said any situation could be handled as long as team members ultimately bought into the concept of sacrifice and teamwork. "It's a corny thing that you hear all the time," he said. "But that really truly is it. It's the team that's able to have that type of chemistry. People willing to sacrifice for each other. That's always been the same in all of pro sports, whether the NFL or auto racing. That's why I love it." That's also why he's a Hall of Famer in those two sports. As a whisperer of pro athletes with a proclivity for causing trouble, "Coach Joe" has no peer.