J.D. Gibbs was doing his best Mr. Bojangles impression as he danced around inquiries of Carl Edwards’ potential move to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012.
While Gibbs has spoken to Edwards’ talent in the past, the president of JGR would not mention the driver and his family’s race team in the same sentence at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Gibbs also would not confirm that JGR would have four teams in 2012. He did not deny, however, that expansion was ultimately part of the company’s plans.
“At some point in the future, like I said before, we would love to have four cars, we’ve looked at it every year but haven’t found the right opportunity to do it,” Gibbs said.
“You have to have the right driver, the right partner, the right group — it has to come all together. We’ve learned before that you have to be careful how you do it. Every year we go through it and look at potential possibilities — the past four years.
“Even when we started the Fed Ex thing — they were the best partner ever that you could put together. We loved (driver) Jason (Leffler), but when you looked at it all, it wasn’t the right fit. When you put Denny (Hamlin) in (the car with that sponsorship), it goes. You have to have all that working together to make it work.”
Asked if (Edwards) was the right opportunity, Gibbs chuckled and replied, “I’ve got nothing for you. I got nothing. . . . There’s nothing to say, good or bad. I guess no comment right now. If you have any questions besides (Edwards), I‘ll be open to that.”
Gibbs would not address possible changes to his 2011 roster. JGR’s Kyle Busch is currently fourth in the points standings and, with three wins, is tied with Kevin Harvick for the most victories this season in Sprint Cup. Hamlin, who finished second in the 2010 Chase, won at Michigan but fell to 11th in points after Sunday’s 27th-place finish.
Joey Logano started the season with five finishes of 23rd or worse but picked up the pace after reports of sponsor Home Depot’s dissatisfaction with the No. 20 team’s results. Logano did not break into the top 20 in the standings until two weeks ago after the New Hampshire race. He dropped to 19th in the standings after a 25th-place Indy finish. Considering that Logano has hardly lived up to Tony Stewart’s legacy with Home Depot, could Edwards be the key to saving that sponsor?
And while there have been rumors of JGR approaching NAPA as a possible sponsor for a fourth team, Gibbs added that he had not replied to a request for proposal (RFP) from the auto parts retailer.
Although last month during a conversation at Kentucky Speedway Gibbs originally denied an engine building collaboration with Toyota Racing Development, he appeared to warm to the idea. Gibbs has had multiple engine failures with all three drivers experiencing DNFs (did not finish) as a result of sour motors. And Gibbs cars have had to start at the back of the field in nine races this season because of failures throughout the weekend.
It appears Gibbs could be fielding a TRD engine as early as this month in preparation for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. In the advent of fuel injection scheduled for full time in 2013, a joint effort engine with TRD would make financial sense for JGR.
“There are certain things we do really well, there are certain things that they do very well and we’re trying to combine that and make that work,” Gibbs said. “As soon as that happens . . . this year, great; next year, great.”
Gibbs would not elaborate on the future of his current engine department. But he said that the TRD and Gibbs’ engine department have been working closer together of late, and with the uncertainty of Red Bull Racing’s situation, it “gives you the availability now, you can really do that — it frees them up some to do other projects.”
“Look over our past history, we’ve got a good group,” Gibbs said. “Mark (Cronquist, JGR's chief engine builder) is a great leader from that standpoint. But we figured that at some point that Toyota would have five teams, we’d have four and do a couple of motor programs, well, that’s not the case. So you have to figure out how do you combine your resources and make that work?”
NOT FADE AWAY
Yes, the driver once known as “Wonder Boy” is three days from turning 40.
But Jeff Gordon proved Sunday he’s far from retiring to the farm with a solid second-place finish in the Brickyard 400. Gordon led four times for 36 laps and remains seventh in the points standings.
“Obviously, we wanted to win this race, but we also wanted to make a statement,” Gordon said. “I think we certainly did that. This team is for real. We showed that today. You always hear about people talking about the team that wins here at Indy, their chances for the championship.
“While we didn’t win, I think we definitely showed that we’re a championship-caliber team. We’ve been knocking on the door, getting closer every single weekend, won a couple of races. For me, this is going to be a huge boost for this race team and hopefully a bit of a statement to the competition as well that we’re serious about our efforts at a championship this year.”
While inconsistency plagued the No. 24 team after Gordon’s win at Phoenix — the second race of the season — the crew battled back over the past two months. Since Gordon’s 20th-place finish at Charlotte in May, the team moved from 16th to seventh in the points standings with an average finish of 6.6 per race and a win at Pocono.
“If we can run like we did here at Indy,” Gordon said, “I know we’re capable of winning just about any place we go.”
BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA
Paul Menard’s Brickyard 400 win provided a few interesting Indy connections.
Menard’s spotter Stevie Reeves grew up two blocks from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In his youth, Reeves earned extra money by collecting and reselling golf balls from the creek at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course. To help support his early racing efforts he built parts for the engines in John Menard’s Indy cars. Sunday was not Reeves' first victory at Indy. He spotted for Jimmie Johnson’s 2008 victory.
Crew chief Slugger Labbe won rookie mechanic of the race with Indianapolis native Kenny Irwin Jr. in 1998. But winning the Brickyard 400 is Labbe’s first major victory since he won the 2003 Daytona 500 with Michael Waltrip.
Team owner Richard Childress took part in a joint venture with John Menard to run Robby Gordon in the 2002 Indy 500. Gordon finished eighth.
Paul Menard took pride in memorizing the names of all the Indy 500 winners as a young fan. He remembers watching Jeff Gordon win the inaugural Brickyard 400 from a suite at IMS.
NUMBERS GAME
3 — Earnhardt Childress Racing engines were among the top four finishers.
4 — First time winners in 2011: Paul Menard, David Ragan, Regan Smith and Trevor Bayne.
4 — Top-10 finishes for Regan Smith and Furniture Row Racing team owner Barney Visser in 2011. Before this season, FRR had not scored a top 10 in 127 starts, and this year’s numbers were earned in the Sprint Cup’s crown jewels — Daytona (seventh), Darlington (first), Charlotte (eighth) and Indy (third).
9 — Consecutive seasons a Chevrolet has won the Brickyard 400.
10 — Top-five finishes for second-place Jeff Gordon in 18 starts.
SAY WHAT?
In the closing laps of the Brickyard 400, crew chief Slugger Labbe radioed to Paul Menard, “Biggest race of your life, Paul; drive the hell out of it.”
