NASCAR Cup Series

Why Joe Gibbs won't let Carl Edwards-Kyle Busch finish affect the team

Published Apr. 27, 2016 9:00 a.m. ET

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At Richmond, we saw one teammate move another teammate out of the way to win a race.

On one hand for team owner Joe Gibbs, it's a great problem to have. On the other hand, he has to make sure it doesn't fester into something that distracts either team from focusing on winning races and champions.

Obviously Kyle Busch was upset at what his teammate Carl Edwards did, but as I said earlier this week, I honestly didn't see anything wrong with it.

Joe Gibbs is a master at handling people and situations, so I can't sit here and tell him what to do. Let's face it, he's dealt with all the egos on his football teams for years and now he's been dealing with egos of his drivers in NASCAR for about 25 years.

I know what I would do if I was in his position. I probably would take Kyle and Carl to dinner and discuss it. I would do it now and not let it fester. I don't want to wait until we get to Talladega.

I also don't want wives at the dinner. And quite honestly, I probably wouldn't even invite my crew chiefs to come with us because they didn't do anything. It should just be the three of them sitting down and going through it all privately.

Joe is in an enviable position. He's got four drivers that can win at any track we go to. As we saw Sunday, it also can come down to his drivers battling each other for the win.

The bad news is one of his drivers won by moving another one of his drivers out of the way, so it's something that has to be dealt with.

Back when I was a crew chief, there were occasions where I was part of multi-car teams.

One was with Robert Yates Racing and the other was Richard Childress Racing.

Richard had a pretty simple guideline. You don't simply wreck each other and you don't help someone else beat your teammate.

Outside of that, Richard wanted you to race your teammate just as hard as you would race anyone else out there on the track.

It just all goes back to where Joe Gibbs Racing is right now. They are at the top of our sport and all four drivers can win anywhere.

The biggest way to settle any issue that arises is communication. The issue isn't going to magically disappear.

They have to address like professionals, put it to rest and move on. Personally and professionally, communication is the most important word in our lives.

For example, if you and your wife don't communicate --“ it's not going to work. If my boss and I don't communicate -- it's not going to work.

The same can be said about drivers and their crew chiefs, as well as drivers and their teammates.

Like I said, being the master motivator that Joe Gibbs is, I imagine he will sit down with Kyle and Carl and get this put to bed pretty quickly. 

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