Kyle Busch deftly avoided several wrecks and made a thrilling a pass of Tony Stewart just before the finish line to capture The Bud Shootout tonight at Daytona International Speedway.

The win was the first Shootout victory for Toyota as well as for Busch. Teammate Denny Hamlin managed to overcome an early accident to finish fifth, while Joey Logano was involved in an accident with 20 laps to go and finished 18th.

The Budweiser Shootout is a non-points event that has become a pre-season tradition in NASCAR since 1979. The 75-lap event is run in two segments this year. First a 25-lap run that is followed by a 10-minute trip to pit road for teams to make adjustments to the cars. Once restarted it is a 50-lap run to the finish that has become famous for exciting racing and tonight was no exception.

Although Kyle Busch selected the second starting position in last night’s draw for the Shootout, NASCAR ruled he would have to start the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota from the back of the field after the team was forced to go to a backup car following an accident in Friday afternoon’s practice session. Busch didn’t stay in the back long, however, as he quickly moved into the top ten and raced near the front of the field through much of the first 25-lap segment. Busch remained near the front of the field through the early portion of the second segment until he was nearly turned by the No. 48 car on lap 47. Remarkably Busch managed to save his M&Ms Camry from sure disaster. He would remain on the track and when a caution came out on lap 55 it allowed the 18 pit crew the opportunity to work on the car. As the race neared its conclusion Busch would once again display his incredible driving skills saving his Camry once more from major damage. Once again the 18 team went to work and was able to make the needed repairs to allow Busch the opportunity to restart at the back of the pack for a green-white-checkered finish. Busch would quickly work his way forward on the restart and found himself pushing Tony Stewart to the lead on the final lap. As the two came off of turn four for the final time, Busch would make his move to the outside to make the pass and claim victory.

Hamlin started the No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota from the 16th position and was running well through the early going until he got caught up in the night’s first accident on lap 9. Although Hamlin managed to avoid major damage, his car needed work and he would ultimately fall two laps off the pace. He would get one lap back on lap 25 when the scheduled caution came out and he was able to return to the lead lap shortly after the ten-minute break when another caution came out on lap 31. Hamlin would remain toward the back of the field and managed to avoid big wrecks on lap 55 and again on lap 75. He would go on to finish fifth.

Meanwhile Joey Logano started the night in the 10th position in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota and proved fast from the outset as he made his way to the front of the field to led a lap early on. Logano would remain inside the top ten through much of the first 25-lap segment and was battling for the race lead with 20 laps to go when a big wreck ended his night early. Logano would get turned from behind sending him up the track and into oncoming traffic. The result was major damage to his Home Depot Camry that left Logano with an 18th-place finish.

The starting front row for the Daytona 500 will be decided Sunday during a qualifying session at 1 PM. The rest of the line up for the Daytona 500 will be decided by a pair of Duel races on Thursday afternoon. Tomorrow’s qualifying session will be broadcast live on Fox at 1 PM, while the Duel races can be seen on SPEED starting at 2 PM on Thursday.

The Great American Race will once again provide the official start to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season when Fox broadcast the Daytona 500 live from Daytona International Speedway next Sunday, February 26 at 1 PM. The race will also be carried on Sirius NASCAR radio channel 128.

Brian Scott’s No. 11 Dollar General hauler was recently wrapped with a new design for the 2012 season! We condensed the 6 hour+ project down to 1 minute for your viewing pleasure. Let us know what you think!

It’s the off-season, so we know you are itching for some racing action! Take part in this interactive stop motion NASCAR race where you choose the car and watch it race. This video was created using 1:24 scale Lionel NASCAR diecast cars moved an inch at a time, a conference table, and thousands of photos! Roughly one minute of footage took one hour to create.

1. Click an image below to open the full-sized image.

2. Save the large image and use it as your cover photo.

Or: Click the button below to download all the images.

[Show as slideshow]

View this video (not created by JGR) for instructions on how to change your timeline cover photo:

Download these new images for your desktop! Check back to this page every week for new images.

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (January 11, 2012) – Joe Gibbs Racing announces today that Matt Lucas has been named crew chief for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Nationwide Series Toyota team.

Lucas, who has spent the past two seasons as the race engineer for the No. 18 team, replaces Jason Ratcliff, who was named crew chief for JGR’s No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team last month. Lucas’ background in racing is deep with extensive experience as an engineer and mechanic in NASCAR as well as CART and IndyCar racing.

“Matt has done a great job for us the past two years and he will provide the team continuity going into next season,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. “He has a close relationship with Jason (Ratcliff) that will also be beneficial as he fills that role. We are fortunate to have people here at JGR like Matt that allow us the opportunity to promote from within. That team has been one of the best in the Nationwide Series over the past several years and we look forward to Matt continuing to build upon that success.”

Prior to joining Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of the 2010 season as race engineer for the No. 18 Nationwide Series team, Lucas spent four seasons with Roush Fenway Racing as a Nationwide Series engineer. As a member of the No. 60 team from 2006-2008, he would help lead Carl Edwards to the 2007 Nationwide Series Championship. In 2009 he worked with the No. 98 car driven by Paul Menard.

“I am excited about the opportunity to lead our No. 18 team going into next season,” said Lucas. “We have a tremendous group of guys on this team and throughout our Nationwide shop and we plan to continue to deliver the type of success our sponsors expect and deserve.”

Lucas spent five seasons as a race engineer with Penske Racing prior to joining Roush Fenway. In addition, he has extensive experience in racing as a mechanic having worked with A.J. Foyt Racing in IndyCar and Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers in CART.

He is a graduate of Cedarville College in Cedarville, Ohio and currently lives in Mooresville, N.C.

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (January 6, 2012) – Joe Gibbs Racing announces today that Mark Martin will drive the Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry in the 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Las Vegas in March.

“We’ve always hoped to have the opportunity for Mark to drive for us and to have him behind the wheel of our Interstate Batteries Toyota for the Nationwide race in Vegas is exciting,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. “He is a great example to all drivers of the dedication it takes to be successful and certainly we’re honored to have him part of our efforts in 2012.”

While Martin is only currently scheduled to race in Las Vegas for JGR, the team is still working on opportunities for the veteran driver to secure additional races.

Martin currently has 49 career victories in 235 Nationwide Series starts, Martin has amassed 111 top-five and 151 top-ten finishes, while leading 8,093 laps. His most recent victory came just last season when he piloted the No. 32 car to victory lane in Las Vegas. He had four total starts in 2011, with the one victory and three top-ten finishes.
“This is exciting,” said Martin. “No organization has been better in the Nationwide Series over the past three or four seasons and to have the chance to get behind the wheel of a Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide car will be a thrill. Maybe I can pick up a few more races and try to catch Kyle to get my record back again”

Dave Alpern, Vice President of Marketing, is currently in his 19th year here at Joe Gibbs Racing.   Dave began his career at JGR as a recent college graduate, working out of a broom closet as a unpaid project intern.    Currently he oversees all aspects of marketing for the team, including customer products, branding, marketing activation, social media and assists in driver management and negotiation.  Dave’s integrity, sense of humor, and strong ability to communicate  are a few reasons why he is one of the longest tenured marketing executives in the sport.

What do you do on a daily basis?

Joe’s been trying to figure that out for a long time.  I work on everything that doesn’t have to do with competition, or making a car go faster, or anything technical.  So everything from driver contracts to toys to social media and public relations.  I have people that handle each area so technically I don’t do anything except make sure the people who are doing those things are doing it right.

What did you do before you came to Joe Gibbs Racing?

I was a college student at George Mason University and came here right after college.  I got my degree in communications and broadcasting with the dream of becoming a Sports Center anchor.  So, I failed miserably in my life goal.

The only jobs I had before I came here were your typical college jobs.   I worked every summer at Nordstrom’s selling ladies shoes.  As a matter of fact, I was a personal shopper.   I also worked at a surf shop and that was where I met my wife.

What is your connection to the Gibbs family? 

JD and I went to junior high and high school together.  I met JD in 7th grade and he actually spent the night at my house the weekend his dad fell to 0-5 during his first season coaching with the Redskins.  I remember telling him too bad you’re not going to be here very long because I figured his dad was going to get fired and he’d have to move somewhere else.  Luckily I was wrong and things turned out well.

When JD and I went to high school, although I loved football, unfortunately I was not gifted with size and didn’t play on the team with him.  We would play flag football and stuff together but I never played on the team with him.  He was still nice to me even though he was the quarterback.  He actually was the starting quarterback as a sophomore on the varsity team- that was kind of a big deal.

We went to different colleges and just kept up throughout the years and would see each other when we were home on breaks.  When I graduated, I actually graduated before he did because he was on the 5-year plan, so they asked if I could help as an intern when I still lived in the DC area for this new race team they were starting.  I figured it would last about 6 months and look good on my resume, and now 20 years later they still haven’t gotten rid of me.

People ask me all the time what it’s like essentially having your best friend as your boss?  It’s definitely different, but the Gibbs family is like nobody I’ve ever met.  Of everyone I’ve ever met in my whole life, I would put JD and Joe at the top in terms of character.  I am around them more than anybody except their wives, and they are the real deal.  They are as solid and as genuine as you can get.  JD and his dad are completely different, other than the character part.  Joe is very fiery, he is a coach, he can be emotional and he doesn’t get mad very often but when he does you definitely take notice.  JD is steady Eddie.  If you could picture me holding my fingers an inch apart, JD’s excited and depressed are about an inch apart. There is no wavering.  He is steady, steady, steady all the time.  He doesn’t get rattled up and is so even keeled which is good in this business.  Joe and JD approach every decision in a very prayerful, clear way and are able to look past emotions to make very sound decisions.

They are great to work with, and are competitive and expect a lot, but at the same time, JD is a lot like me in that there is the work hard, play hard mentality.  We like to snowboard and mountain bike, and coach our kids, and experience life.  At the same time we want to win at work. Joe has a motor like no one I’ve ever met, because he never stops.  Joe can take a red-eye and come straight to work and work all day.  He literally never stops and has a capacity for lack of sleep that I’ve never seen in anybody else that he learned from coaching.  It’s really incredible.

Why did you choose to stay at JGR?

There have been a lot of opportunities for other things just because you meet a lot of people and work with a lot of companies, but I tell people all the time it’s not what we’re doing it’s who I’m doing it with.  We could be selling coat hangers and it wouldn’t really matter to me.  I’m not here because of racing.  I like racing, I believe in racing, so that’s kind of a bonus but it’s more about the people I’m doing it with.  I’ve been here long enough that I feel like when I watch those cars, that they are my cars.  I look at those just as though it was my race team and the thought of watching a race without having any skin in the game would kill me.  When that feeling ends, and I don’t have that passion for it anymore, I’ll know I’m done.  Hopefully that won’t ever happen.

Do you ever think about pursuing a career in sports broadcasting?

No, I’ve realized that train has probably left the station and I’m okay with that.  I have no regrets because if you know you’re where God wants you to be then you feel good about it.  I know this is where I am supposed to be. We started “The Show,” (on joegibbsracing.com) so I can get my little broadcasting fix and feel like I’m using something that I spent four years of college learning to do.  I talked about having a show for years before Boris (JGR webmaster Bryan Cook) got here.  Once we had someone that could actually put it together, package it and put it on the internet- skills that I didn’t have- it became a reality.  It’s just a little show on the Internet but we have a lot of fun filming it.

Click Here to Watch “The Show”

“The Show” was really inspired by our Christmas video, which is something we started doing about 11 years ago, that was supposed to be just team highlights for the Christmas party that we have for JGR employees.  The first Christmas video was five minutes of highlights and a couple skits.  Now it has turned into a 45-minute video that just happens to have some highlights, but it’s all skits.  It’s like an episode of Saturday Night Live, which is our inspiration for a lot of the skits.  We get the drivers involved but it’s not released to the public, nor does it go on YouTube, so the drivers know that they can make fun of themselves and no one is going to see it.

Every year the drivers come up to me and ask what they are doing in the Christmas video. Our old drivers will still ask me in the garage area when I am going to ask them to film something, because they really love filming it and have a lot of fun with it.  Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte were in it last year.  The drivers get really into it and they are a lot funnier then you may think.  Anyway, “The Show” is a toned down spin-off of the Christmas video because we thought it would be a fun thing for people to see.  The drivers are also on “The Show,” and each episode will usually have one of the drivers doing something.  Whether it’s Kyle having his wife straighten Boris’s hair, to Joey driving a showcar on the street, or Denny talking about his crew cut- we’ve had a lot of different driver interactions.

What was your first year at JGR like?

I worked in a broom closet.  When they hired me I had finished college and wanted to get engaged but first wanted to figure out what I was doing with my life.  The plan was either to go into full-time ministry with Young Life or I was going to do something else.  I got the call from JGR on a Thursday asking if I could move to Charlotte on Monday and figured that was my answer.

We had this little building that had no offices left and so they cleared out a broom closet that was honestly 8 feet by 8 feet and had no windows in it.  I think they felt bad for me because they put trim stuff around the floor to make it look like a room and barely squeezed a little desk in there.  So I came down and worked in a broom closet and didn’t have a job description because I would really just do anything.  It was Todd Meredith, JD and I, and JGR had a general manager the first 6 months while we were still in college and that person left and we were all three hired for less than that one guy was making.  They figured that between the three of us, we’d at least pick up the business so we each split up the duties.  We would push speakerphone, Todd, JD and I, and say, “What are you working on? You need any help?”  We would just go into each other’s offices and try to figure it out.  There was no blueprint.  There were no job descriptions. It was a brand new race team and no one knew what they were doing, so we just made it up.  It was awesome.  Back then we were in a tiny building with nowhere to go eat, and now we’re in a 250,000 square-foot building with restaurants all over the place.  Now there is too much to do and at that time there was not enough to do.  We’re all three still here, although those guys go to more races than I do!

I do recall, and I’m still living it down to this day, that one day in the early years, JD and I had a typing contest to see who could type the fastest.  We made the mistake of telling our wives so to this day, when things get busy, they’ll say something like did you have a typing contest today?  However, I’m sure that I won the typing contest.

What has been your favorite part of working at Joe Gibbs Racing?

 My favorite thing is probably getting to meet a lot of different people.  You make a lot of relationships with the sponsors that we deal with, at the racetrack you get to meet a ton of people.

My favorite story about meeting people would have to be at a Daytona 500 when the Passion of the Christ was about to come out on film, and Interstate Batteries painted their car up to promote the movie.  Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus, came to the race and we were in charge of hosting him.  My wife and I were hosting him and his wife.  So we are walking around the Daytona 500 with Jim Caviezel.  President Bush was also at the race and the security was really tight so you couldn’t go anywhere.  I remember at the national anthem you had President Bush standing right in front of our pit wall, and there was an armored suburban with a gunner in the back holding a machine gun and of course all the secret service agents.  So you have that, and I have Jesus, Jim Caviezel, standing right next to me, and Kid Rock was Tony Stewart’s guest at that race so he was right there as well.   Within a 10-foot space, you had Kid Rock, the President and Jim Caviezel.  I remember thinking to myself, “This is a great sport.  I love this job.”  That is probably the only time those three people will ever be in the same spot, and probably never will be again.  That’s the kind of thing that you take for granted, it’s a pretty cool job.

What moment will you always remember from JGR?

My favorite memories stem around the championships and the feelings of accomplishment.  The best part about the championship is not the racetrack experience but when you get to celebrate it.  I’ll never forget that first one when we went to The Waldorf in New York City and at one table it was my wife and I, the Gibbs’ and the Meredith’s, and we had a better seat then Jeff Gordon did.  My wife’s head was actually blocking Jeff Gordon’s view of the stage and I was like “I bet he’s ticked off thinking “who are these people?” and why am I not sitting there?  It was really then that you realize how awesome it was, and I know everyone at our table was thinking how the heck did we do this?  There was a sense of accomplishment sitting at that table at the first banquet and remembering this is what the banquet is supposed to be like.  We go to this thing every year and celebrate somebody else, but when it’s your team it’s really special.  We’ve won three of them and celebrating at the championship is really the peak of what we do.  It never gets old.

What is something that you’ve helped change since you’ve been here?

We didn’t have a PR staff until a few years ago when we hired Joe’s PR person from the Redskins after he finished “Coaching Part 2”. After that JD thought I was crazy when I told him we needed to bring in another person to be in charge of social media-and were by far the first team to hire somebody where that was their full time job.  The idea behind it was originally our lowest traffic day on our website was Sunday and we thought that didn’t make any sense because that’s our most important day of the week.  So, we discussed sending someone to the racetrack to be the hometown broadcast and give the play-by-play for our fans and our sponsors. We had a bunch of candidates, but we picked Boris.  He does an awesome job with that- honestly I can’t imagine watching a race now without following Boris’ feed.  And beyond that he’s created apps and done a lot of other things so I definitely take credit for hiring Boris.

What has been your greatest accomplishment here at JGR?

You know, since I tell my kids all the time I’m more interested in who you are then what you do, I will try to base my answer on that principle. I’ve done a lot of “stuff”, but I am most proud that after 20 years in the business world I can look my wife, my kids, my employers, my counterparts, and our customers in the eyes and say I’ve done things with integrity and with the interests of others in the forefront. I have zero regrets.

If I had to pinpoint a single accomplishment, I would probably say it would be something that is almost unrelated to my day-to-day job, but I take credit for Tony Stewart.  In 1998, we were talking about expanding to a second team and in one of our management meetings I said the guy we need to get is this open wheel kid named Tony Stewart.  Joe said, “Who?” And as Joe started asking around about Tony Stewart everyone said if you can get him he’d be phenomenal but you’re not going to get him because he’s the Indy Car champion and he’s not going to come race full-time over here.  I went with Joe to all the recruiting trips to get Tony, and the rest was history.  I feel like I had a small part in that course of history when he chose to come to NASCAR and here to Joe Gibbs Racing and won us two championships.

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (December 16, 2011) – Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announces today that Jason Ratcliff has been named crew chief for its No. 20 Sprint Cup Series team, replacing Greg Zipadelli who is leaving the organization to pursue an opportunity with Stewart-Haas Racing.

“We appreciate everything Greg has done for us here at Joe Gibbs Racing. He has been a big part of our success, but we felt the timing was right to make this transition for our race team which allows Greg the opportunity to pursue a director of competition position with Tony (Stewart),” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “We also felt that the timing was right to bring Jason (Ratcliff) to our Cup operation. He is a proven leader with a tremendous track record in our Nationwide program and we think he and Joey will work well together.”

Ratcliff spent the previous seven years as crew chief for JGR’s No. 18 Nationwide Series team. No team has been better over the past three seasons as the team won two consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s Championships in 2009 and 2010. They narrowly missed out on a third consecutive title this past season finishing just a few points off the pace in second. Over the past three seasons JGR’s No. 18 Nationwide Series team has won an incredible 30 races, with 68 top-five, and 85 top-ten finishes. In addition, they have led an astonishing 6,124 laps over that time.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to join our Cup operation and work with Joey and everyone on the 20 team,” said Ratcliff. “There is a great history with this program and we have two of the best sponsors in the sport with The Home Depot and Dollar General. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Joey a few times now on the Nationwide side so there is a familiarity there, but I’m looking forward to getting started fulltime and working alongside Dave (Rogers) and Darian (Grubb).”

Zipadelli has been the crew chief for JGR’s No. 20 program since the team was formed in 1999. Over the 13-year span he has won 33 total races and two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships with driver Tony Stewart (2002 and 2005). He was also on top of the pit box for Joey Logano’s first career victory in 2009 which made him the youngest driver ever to win on the Cup level. Zipadelli is leaving JGR to pursue an opportunity with Stewart-Haas Racing.

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (December 9, 2011) – Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announces today that Darian Grubb has been named crew chief for its No. 11 FedEx Toyota NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team.

“Darian is a great addition to our organization and person to lead our No. 11 FedEx team,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “Obviously he has proven the ability to guide a team to a championship and we are excited to have him working with Denny (Hamlin) toward achieving that goal here at Joe Gibbs Racing.”

Grubb is coming off an impressive championship run with driver Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing which included winning five of the 10 Chase races en route to capturing the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title. He spent the past three seasons as crew chief for Stewart on the No. 14 car after the driver left JGR to start his own race operation. Prior to joining Stewart-Haas Racing, Grubb spent six years with Hendrick Motorsports; rising through the organization’s engineering ranks and gaining invaluable crew chief experience.

“I’m thrilled to join Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Grubb. “The chance to work with Denny is something I’m excited about. When you sit down with Joe and J.D. Gibbs you can’t help but be excited about this opportunity and the team aspects of JGR. There is no question about the level of support you get here and I’m looking forward to working with everyone across the entire organization.”

Over the past three seasons as crew chief for Stewart, Grubb has helped lead the team to 11 victories, while amassing 33 top-five and 59 top-ten finishes over that time. Prior to joining Stewart-Haas Racing, Grubb gained previous crew chief experience while with Hendrick Motorsports. He was crew chief to Casey Mears in 2007, helping to lead the driver to his first Sprint Cup Series career victory with a win that season in the prestigious Coca-Cola 600. The team also won the pole at Chicagoland Speedway that year, while earning five top-five and 10 top-ten finishes. He also served as interim crew chief for Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 car for the first four races of the 2006 season with the team winning two of those four including the Daytona 500.