{"id":28829,"date":"2019-11-17T21:23:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T03:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=28829"},"modified":"2019-11-17T21:24:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T03:24:04","slug":"emotional-season-ends-with-championship-for-joe-gibbs-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/17\/emotional-season-ends-with-championship-for-joe-gibbs-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional season ends with championship for Joe Gibbs Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

HOMESTEAD, Fla. \u2013 It was Kyle Busch\u2019s championship evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday, but it also had a distinctive feel of being a J.D. Gibbs\u2019 kind of achievement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, celebrates with his crew after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Team owner Joe Gibbs\u2019 oldest son J.D. was president of the Joe Gibbs Racing team and an omnipresent positive vibe in the NASCAR garage for more than a decade. Typically smiling and joking, but also ultra-competitive, the team won four previous Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championships under his leadership and won hearts because of his enduring positive spirit.<\/p>\n

J.D. Gibbs passed away on January 11 at the age of 49 after a valiant and lengthy fight against a degenerative neurological disease. His passing and its effect on the 2019 season has been simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-strengthening.<\/p>\n

The last race J.D. attended was the 2015 Homestead season finale, which was coincidentally – or not, depending how you chose to believe – the last time Kyle Busch won at Homestead and when he captured his first season championship.<\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs was smiling widely in the celebration Sunday night following Busch\u2019s championship victory. But there was also an unmistakable special gleam in his eye. This one was for J.D.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been an emotional year for us and for me, starting with the Daytona 500,\u2019\u2019 Gibbs said of his driver Denny Hamlin\u2019s season-opening Daytona victory only a few weeks after J.D.\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAnd I think anyone that saw that would say there\u2019s no way that could happen by accident. I feel like God was kind of overseeing that and I think J.D. was there. And it kind of continued the entire year for me.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Hamlin\u2019s emotional win at Daytona in the weeks following J.D. Gibbs\u2019 passing was memorable and, Joe Gibbs believes, highly motivational to the entire team. Counting Busch\u2019s win at Homestead, the four-car JGR organization set a NASCAR modern era (since 1972) record with 19 wins. All four of his drivers \u2013 Busch, Hamlin, Sunday\u2019s championship runner-up Martin Truex Jr. and young driver Erik Jones \u2013 won races this season and qualified for the Playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been emotional to win the number of races we\u2019ve won,\u2019\u2019 Gibbs said. \u201cIt\u2019s just something that doesn\u2019t normally happen. I think he has been a part of it and everyone that worked at Joe Gibbs racing when J.D. left us, each and everyone of them felt that. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think they have devoted this year to him and I know all of us did family-wise.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Busch acknowledged after the race Sunday night that he was thinking of J.D. and cognizant of the totality of J.D.\u2019s impact on the organization. Busch said he couldn\u2019t remember exactly if it was J.D. or Coach Gibbs that initially reached out about bringing him onto the team. But he spoke fondly about what J.D. has meant to him and his career. And it has been<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s been a difficult time on [J.D.\u2019s wife] Melissa and Joe [Gibbs],\u2019\u2019 Busch said in Victory Lane. \u201cTo be able to reward them with a championship, I know how much it means to them, but it\u2019s the best I can do.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI know J.D. was looking down on us all year long.<\/p>\n

Busch added, \u201cHe\u2019s an honorable man and honorable father and one that reflects the Lord and lived that way and showed people how to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot could be learned from those type of individuals.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

That was evident this week in JGR\u2019s precedent-setting three entries in the championship race.  It\u2019s the kind of lofty ambition J.D. would have absolutely appreciated – and been so very proud.<\/p>\n

Busch\u2019s teammate Hamlin carried a special message on the back of his Toyota this weekend and a memorial to his friend all season long. J.D. had been No. 11 when he played high school football and Hamlin\u2019s Toyota is No. 11. It was J.D. that hired a young Hamlin and gave him his first opportunity in NASCAR\u2019s big leagues.<\/p>\n

Although Hamlin missed out on winning his first championship this weekend, he remained positive about the opportunity he had and absolutely motivated to do even better next year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light Ford, Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Express Toyota, and Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, pose for a photo opportunity prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

He was smiling and positive even as he discussed his championship near-miss.<\/p>\n

Listening to Hamlin speak, seeing his attitude all week there was an unmistakable J.D.  influence there. From Busch\u2019s win to Hamlin\u2019s good try \u2013 from Truex\u2019s runner-up run to the team\u2019s 23-year old Jones career best third place finish on Sunday; there was effort, results and positive momentum.<\/p>\n

And J.D. would have been so proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to say thanks to everyone,\u2019\u2019 Gibbs said. \u201cPeople asked me if it was emotional all year, I felt like I could feel J.D. all year and it\u2019s kind of hard to put into words.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s been special and different and was great to finish it up the way we did tonight.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. \u2013 It was Kyle Busch\u2019s championship evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday, but it also had a distinctive feel of being a J.D. Gibbs\u2019 kind of achievement. Team owner Joe Gibbs\u2019 oldest son J.D. was president of the Joe Gibbs Racing team and an omnipresent positive vibe in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":28789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[527,16],"class_list":["post-28829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-homestead-miami-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/HMS_MENCS_BuschKy_Celebration_111719.jpg?fit=2508%2C1800","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-7uZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28830,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28829\/revisions\/28830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}