| | Joe Gibbs turned football into a business during his stay in the nation's capital. Around a group of workhorses called "The Hogs," Gibbs turned the Washington Redskins into Super Bowl champions.
Bobby Labonte isn't exactly what you'd call a "hog." Neither are his crew chief, Jimmy Makar, his teammate, Tony Stewart, nor Stewart's crew chief, Greg Zipadelli.
|  | | Joe Gibbs puts his trust in the people he hires, instead of acting as a hands-on "coach" in the garage. |
But, in each, there is a work ethic that would make any running back feel safe heading for a hole that they had helped create.
Labonte is on the verge of winning Gibbs' first Winston Cup championship ring. Labonte's been a contender in years past. Now, he's the contender, and Gibbs is on the sidelines readying for the final quarter of what will be his most memorable season as a car owner.
"Being the kind of owner I am -- not the technical guy -- my job is to pick the people, get the resources, keep everything coming to Jimmy Makar and the guys, and then they've got to make it happen on the track," says Gibbs, whose playbook has dropped the counter-trey and added the lap-counter. "It was hard to adjust to. It's better from the standpoint of , 'I couldn't fix it anyway,' so I'm more relaxed at the track and everything even though I still get uptight.
"But, on the other side of it, it's a little frustrating because you're used to kind of being hands-on and making something happen. Over here, I can't."
Last season, Labonte finished second in the points championship as Joe Gibbs Racing branched out and brought in rookie sensation Stewart to assist the team as a whole with double the resources, double the input and double the talent. Whatever influence the team concept had at Gibbs Racing, it has worked.
Both Labonte and Stewart run at or near the front week in and week out on the Winston Cup circuit. It's been like that for the better part of the last two years. And, with that remaining constant into 2000, Labonte has picked up a little luck and finds himself in the catbirds seat with eight races remaining on the Millennial season.
"I think for the last two years, it's pretty much been the same," said Gibbs, who, like the coach of old, always makes sure to put more credence in his players and team members than himself or his administrative staff. "We realize that you only get opportunities like this every now and then. You only get a driver at his peak for so many years, and the team and everything to go around him. I think it started last year.
"That was the first time we could seriously say we raced for a championship. We could win races and everything, but to seriously be a championship contender, that came last year. We always look at each week saying, 'Is there something we can do to improve the team?' I think that's the difference."
Should Labonte go on to win the championship, he can look back on one lousy-turned-spectacular weekend as the make-it-or-break-it point in the season. When Labonte crashed his primary car at Darlington, qualified in a backup, and won the race from a morbid starting spot, there was a sense of accomplishment and momentum that seems to be impenetrable for this team.
"You just try to be cautiously aggressive on everything with the thought process to be as consistent as possible," says Labonte. "At the end of the day when you are, you learn from that. Of course, when you aren't, you learn from that too. We've done a lot of learning and we feel like we've gotten better."
Maybe Gibbs best trait is the ability to overcome mistakes and help his players cope with adversity.
That's the team concept he preaches. Ask Joe Theismann how many times he learned from mistakes. Ask John Riggins how many times he fumbled. Better yet, ask any of the hogs how many times they false-started or got nailed for holding in the red zone.
It's all about the next play not the one that was botched. Labonte is closing in on the final snap of a championship season. Previous years should remind him how to finish the game.
Phil Furr, a freelance writer based in Charlotte, N.C., writes a weekly auto-racing column for ESPN.com. | |
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