HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Coach Joe is back, but he's not calling the shots in NASCAR anymore.
"We're still trying to figure out how big a pay cut he's going to get," J.D. Gibbs said Tuesday in welcoming his father back to the race team. "It's going to be large. A couple of zeros off of it. But we're excited to have him back."
Gibbs stepped down as coach of the Washington Redskins on Jan. 9, and has quickly settled back into his role as owner of one of NASCAR's most successful race teams. But unlike Washington, where he led his football team into the playoffs in two of the last three seasons, Gibbs isn't in charge down here. That role belongs to his oldest son, J.D., the team president of Joe Gibbs Racing who took over day-to-day control when his father went back to the NFL.
It leaves Gibbs fighting with his son for permission to drive the company Lexus, and figuring out just where he's needed in the family business he formed in 1992.
"My role will be -- they will roll me into the corner," Gibbs said Tuesday during a media reception at team headquarters. "They don't miss me much, the way they have taken off the last four years. I felt like my role has always been to work with the sponsors -- because I am not the technical guy -- to keep the resources going and to pick the people, because you win with people."
No matter what job they give him, it was clear the team is thrilled to have him back, evidenced by the large "Welcome home Joe" banner that hangs above the entrance to the race shop.
