Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 8, 1993 TAG: 9303080015
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogazcyk
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
RACING WILL BE FUEL FOR GIBBS' FIRE
On the third day of the rest of Joe Gibbs' life, his emotions were fluttering like some of the passes he saw Mark Rypien throw this past season.A few hours before the NASCAR Winston Cup team owner's first race as a former football coach, Gibbs repeatedly accepted retirement congratulations Sunday in the garage area at Richmond International Raceway. His mood definitely was not in the pits, however.
"I'm wondering what people will call me now," said the man who walked away from the Washington Redskins' sideline Friday. "Do they call me `ex-' or maybe `former?' People have always called me `Coach.' That won't work anymore, will it?"
When Dale Jarrett drove the Interstate Batteries Lumina to victory at the Daytona 500 last month, the second-year team owner said his job was "to pray and stay out of the way." Gibbs still does the former, but no longer subscribes to the latter.
"To tell you the truth, I'd like to change a tire," Gibbs said when asked what role he wanted on his race team, before the Pontiac Excitement 400. "I guess I'd have to earn my way onto that group. I don't know if I could get enough competence to do that.
"Literally, I'd like to spend some time working on cars. I love cars and love working on them. As far as being the owner, my job is to make sure we have enough money to go fast and keep our sponsors happy. But I plan on taking time each week to go in the back of the shop and work with each of those guys, and see what they do. I want to know this inside and out."
That doesn't mean Gibbs will throw himself into racing as he did football. He owns a 1984 Corvette, a gift from wife Pat, and he knows his way around a chassis like he does the one-back set. But crew chief Jimmy Makar doesn't have to worry about Gibbs making any wrenching decisions under the hood.
"We have some jet skis and I like to work on them," Gibbs said, laughing. "I'm just not very good at it. They work about half of the time."
In a half-hour sit-down session with the media before Sunday's race, Gibbs made it clear his family will replace the Redskins as the priority in his life. Racing fills the competitive void left by his football exit.
Gibbs was born in Mocksville, N.C., southwest of Winston-Salem, where his dad was a To tell you the truth, I'd like to change a tire. I guess I'd have to earn my way onto that group. I don't know if I could get enough competence to do that. Joe Gibbs When asked what role he wanted on his race team sheriff, but the Hall of Fame coach-to-be didn't deal in wheels until the family moved to Southern California when he was in the ninth grade.
"That's where I got hooked," Gibbs said. "Southern California was all street rods and hamburger joints. I had every kind of street rod you could have. A '32 Ford, a '27 T. Then I got into drag racing [with longtime friend Rennie Simmons, an assistant coach with the Redskins]. We worked our way up from coupes to top fuel.
"I really thought that's what I'd wind up doing, driving one of those. That was my fantasy. I loved coaching, too, and the first one that paid money was coaching. I figured I'd better take that, and we sold the car."
Gibbs has been consumed by coaching since that 1964 day when San Diego State coach Don Coryell offered a graduate assistant's job. He's in need of another offer now. He was an NFL head coach for a dozen years and is wealthy enough to fuel a Winston Cup team. However, several bad real-estate investments about a decade ago cost Gibbs about $1 million.
When he resigned last week, he walked away from two years remaining on his contract at about $1.3 million annually. He'd like to work as a television analyst, but said he wouldn't take a job that would prevent him from spending autumn Saturdays watching his youngest son, Coy, play football for Stanford. Gibbs will do more motivational speaking and increase his youth work. He's definitely not a 9-to-5er.
"Financially, I have to do something," Gibbs said. "When I wake up [this] morning, I'm going to feel a little weird. I used to have a place to go and a secretary to give orders to. That's not the case now. I'm excited about this, but I'm a little nervous, too.
"The easiest thing would be to keep coaching. I could have made a lot of money, but I would have been cheating the fans, because I felt I couldn't do it as I once did. Going through all of this, it's been like running an emotional marathon."
Gibbs' team finished fourth Sunday after a first and a sixth in the first two races of the season. Gibbs and his wife likely will rent an apartment in Charlotte, N.C., so they can spend more time with the NASCAR team, while keeping their two homes, outside Fredericksburg and in Vienna.
"The racing gives me the competition," Gibbs said. "I always wanted to play something as a kid. I was never very good, but I always wanted to play. I got into racquetball [and became the 35-and-over U.S. champion in 1976]. The competition was what fascinated me.
"I have to stay active. I told somebody once that if you ever see me on a tour bus or in a supermarket with my wife, pushing the cart, just go ahead and wrap me up. Then, I'm brain dead."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING