One of the hardest parts of building a champion team is spotting raw talent. And once you see it, do whatever it takes to secure it. NASCAR legend Rick Hendrick famously scouted Jeff Gordon at a Busch Series race in 1992, chartering a private jet to bring the 20-year-old phenom to Charlotte for a handshake deal the very next day. Joe Gibbs faced a similar crossroads when he first heard about Tony Stewart.
Gibbs, a three-time Super Bowl-winning coach who led the Washington Redskins with three different quarterbacks in the 1980s and early ’90s. Now, Gibbs had turned to NASCAR ownership in 1991 with the same strategic mindset. When he watched Tony Stewart climb through the ranks of USAC, open-wheel, and eventually win the 1997 IRL title, Gibbs saw a multidisciplinary driver with rare versatility. He set out to bring Stewart into Joe Gibbs Racing, setting up one of the most transformative partnerships in Cup Series history.
How Joe Gibbs lured Tony Stewart into NASCAR
Joe Gibbs was still laying the groundwork for his fledgling Cup team when he first turned his attention to a young sprint-car star named Tony Stewart. As Kevin Harvick put it on his Happy Hour podcast, “Tell me how you went and found Tony Stewart.” Joe Gibbs walked into a Shell sponsorship meeting, already eyeing a driver he’d never formally met, as Gibbs recalled, “We had kind of all seen Tony, and I just said, ‘What do you think if we could get Tony Stewart?’ They freaked out. ‘He’s who we want.’”
At the time, Tony Stewart had already clinched the 1995 USAC Triple Crown. A feat no one had achieved before, and he was rising fast in IndyCar. In 1997, he became the IRL champion while also dabbling in NASCAR’s Busch Series with Bobby Labonte’s team. Despite being under contract with Harry Ranier’s Cup operation, Stewart was seen by some in the stock car world as a volatile talent: brilliant behind the wheel, but hard to manage.
Gibbs didn’t let Stewart’s busy schedule derail him. “I start trying to chase him down. I can’t find him half the time because he’s all over the place. So I finally call his girlfriend at Indy. The third time I call her, she goes, ‘That’s not him.’ And I went, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s over.’ But I kept after Tony, kept talking to Harry, and I said, ‘Could we work a deal here?’” Indeed, Stewart was splitting time between USAC and occasional Busch (Xfinity) tours with Bobby Labonte’s team in 1996–97. This made it nearly impossible to pin him down. Gibbs’ persistence—calling Stewart’s circle, negotiating with Ranier, and promising him a clear development path—broke through the chaos and set the wheels in motion.
Stewart himself admitted he resisted an immediate leap to the Cup. The 84-year-old said, “I’m not ready for Cup… They wanted me to drive Cup. I’m not ready still. So we put him in Xfinity.” Rather than force a premature Cup debut, Gibbs purchased Labonte Motorsports in late 1998 to create his Busch program and let Stewart sharpen his stock-car skills. Stewart wrecked repeatedly, sometimes three times in one practice. But those crashes taught him car control on pavement, unlike his USAC dirt background. In 1998, he didn’t win, but he finished 8th in Busch points and gained invaluable experience.
In 1999, Stewart’s rookie Cup season netted three victories and Rookie of the Year honors, immediately validating Gibbs’ gamble. Stewart went on to win his first Cup championship in 2002. Just four years after Gibbs first “freaked out” at the idea of signing him, he became one of NASCAR’s most versatile stars across USAC, IndyCar, and stock cars.
That’s just one success story of the Joe Gibbs playbook. But can he do the same with his grandson? That’s a question floating around a lot these days.
Could Joe Gibbs shift gears after his grandson’s NASCAR setback?
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