Gibbs and Nascar.

[MTK]

Here's another Gibbs/Nascar article I came across:

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/N...972253-ap.html

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) - There's not a whole lot of difference between running an NFL team and a NASCAR operation.

At least that's how Joe Gibbs sees it after returning to pro football to coach the Washington Redskins a year ago. He spent the previous decade at Joe Gibbs Racing, overseeing two Winston Cup champions, Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart.

"They're exactly the same, those two sports," Gibbs said during the NFL's annual meetings. "Anybody from here who goes over there, I tell them: 'You won't believe it.'

"You're asking a 25-year-old, no, begging him, 'Please, Tony, take $6 million.'

"You have a quarterback and a driver, crew chiefs and coaches. There are 13 people who travel with a race team and 13 who are on your coaching staff. There are roughly 320 people in both. The numbers are pretty much the same."

So was the success for Gibbs, who won three Super Bowls in his first stint coaching the Redskins, then started up his NASCAR operation and soon became a major player. He said many lessons he learned in football translated well to auto racing, and the same is true moving in the opposite direction.

"You have the car and the technology, and here you have the Xs and Os," Gibbs said. "You have the people and the egos and all the guys winning championships wanting to come in and say, 'Hey, it was me, it was me. I won the games; I won the races.'

"And you can have the miscommunications the same way. The first year I was there, we lost a race because of the noise. Just like when you call a play and you thought someone said 'two' and it was 'blue.' We had someone in the crew who thought it was two pounds when it was two rounds."

While Gibbs wasn't behind the wheel going 190 miles per hour at Daytona or Talladega or trading paint at Bristol, he often went to driving schools with sponsors. He got up to 150 m.p.h.

"It definitely gives you a deep appreciation for those drivers," he said.