By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
Denny Hamlin’s win in Sunday’s Daytona 500 marked a significant milestone for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota Racing Development.
On Sept. 6, 2007, Joe Gibbs Racing announced to the public that they would be severing their relationship with Chevrolet to move to Toyota, an OEM partner that only had one year under its belt.
JGR won their first race with Toyota in March 2008 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Nearly 11 years later, JGR collected their 100th win with Toyota.
For Joe Gibbs, the partnership with Toyota has been “something special.”
“It’s really great for us,” said Gibbs about working with Toyota. “The relationship we have with Toyota, the partnership, the friends that have developed over our period of time with them, it’s a special deal for us, special for them and to realize, like I said, you’ve got a company like that that could be doing a million different things around the world, and for them to choose to be in our sport is just a huge deal, I think, for us, the sport. They’re great partners for us, and the big thing is they want to win.”
In order to build a successful program with Toyota, Gibbs and the executive team at JGR found the right people with the desire to win.
For president and general manager of Toyota Racing Development USA David Wilson, Gibbs and his family took the chance on them in 2007 when they were struggling to qualify and make races, but he believes Gibbs enjoyed their approach to NASCAR.
“I always used to say that Joe Gibbs and his family took a chance on Toyota,” Wilson said about the partnership. “We were one year into the Cup series in 2007. We didn’t win any races in 2007, needless to say. We were struggling to qualify for races back then. We developed this relationship. I think Joe and his guys liked the way we approached the sport of NASCAR. It was different from the other manufactures. The trust and the risk they took, I always took very personally.”
While the 100th Cup series victory is special, Wilson understands that the milestone reinforces what a special partnership is being cultivated with both parties.
“I didn’t realize this was our 100th win,” he said. “100 wins over the years is pretty remarkable That tells us that we made some good decisions along the way. It reinforces what a special partnership we developed with Joe Gibbs is. We are not a sponsor, but we are a sponsor. We get our hands dirty. We have gone through some tough times together as well, but nowhere through that period have we lost confidence and trust in each other. It’s made us better partners yet.”
While 100 wins with one organization is remarkable, Wilson believes Toyota will continue to be built on and with the foundation that Gibbs and his organization provided.