Chemistry class: Driver-crew chief pairings key to JGR's success
What a difference a year makes.
After the first eight races of 2015, his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing, Carl Edwards was struggling mightily. The veteran driver was mired in 15th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings, with no victories, no top fives, no poles and a best finish of 10th.
In those eight races, Edwards had earned a total of 203 points.
This year is a wholly different story.
Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Edwards drubbed the field, leading 276 of 500 laps to win the Food City 500. After the first eight races of this season, Edwards has one victory, four top fives, seven top 10s, two poles and 286 points.
That's 41 percent more points than Edwards had at this time last year, a huge improvement.
There are several factors that go into such a level of improvement, not the least of which is the fast Toyotas that JGR fields for its four drivers every week.
One of the most visible changes for 2016 is that Edwards has a new crew chief in Dave Rogers, a longtime JGR veteran. The two seem to have it off especially well, finding the elusive but essential chemistry it takes to win.
"I've spent more time with Dave and the guys this year and in the off-season than I ever have in my career," said Edwards. "When Dave says this is a real team effort and Coach (team owner Joe Gibbs) says it's a team effort, it's true."
And the success makes the team-building process a whole lot easier.
"There is no more close-knit team in sports probably, so it's really cool to be a part of it," said Edwards. "It's been a lot of fun. I've had a great time getting to know Dave, and it's really just fun to be a part of something like this, and the fact that we're running well, that's just icing on the cake. It's really neat."
From the crew chief's perspective, it's been good, too.
"The things that I'm proud of are days like Martinsville where we started out being literally a 45th-place car out of a 40-car field and managed to make it a top-five car," said Rogers.
"That was just probably one of the worst cars that I've ever been associated with, and Carl did a great job of managing and getting to the pit stop, and then the pit crew did a great job of making some changes, and we clawed ourselves back into it."
One of the big reasons JGR is so successful right now is that a series of personnel changes over the past two years has created four winning driver-crew chief combinations. That's rare in this sport.
"I would just say this to you: It's one of the hardest things in sports to get a great chemistry between two guys, particularly at what they do," said team owner Gibbs. "You've got somebody that's making all those calls, and I've been there -- same thing in football.
"It reminds me so much of making those calls on the sideline," Gibbs added. "You're going to have some bad ones. You're going to be called some names, and you just hope it's not your quarterback and it's not the driver."
Given that JGR has won four of eight Sprint Cup races so far this year and has three of four drivers already locked into NASCAR's playoffs, it seems like they've got the chemistry just right.
