TOYOTA NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS)
Joe Gibbs & Darrell Wallace Jr. — Notes & Quotes
Daytona International Speedway – February 20, 2013
JOE GIBBS, team owner, Joe Gibbs Racing
How will teams continue to find sponsorships for minority drivers?
“I think as we go forward we are going to be able to get a lot of sponsorship. I think that, obviously, for female drivers, I think it’s going to be easier. I think it’s always going to be — hey, it’s a struggle to get sponsorship period until you hit the big time with a driver. So, I think that’s just part of the normal struggle that you have, but I think we’ve been fortunate that we’ve got some partners really helping and I think it’s going to easier and easier as we go down the road. I think it’s going to be a lot easier with Darrell (Wallace Jr.) as soon as he gets out there and gets in front of people. There’s going to be an excitement about that and just like with Danica (Patrick) right now and so you see sponsors starting to flock over there. So, I think it’s going to be something and the future that’s going to be easier for us. I don’t know how Darrell feels.”
Do NASCAR drivers and NFL players manage their emotions in similar manners?
“I’d say that the anger is about the same. I think the difference is normally you say it with your fists in football. Let me say this, I’ve always stood on the sidelines and our guys — so what normally happens in a fight in the NFL is the first guy throws the punch is your guy, you know what I mean? He winds up and then the next one throws a punch and then both of them are going to get thrown out, so when they come walking by me they go, ‘He hit me. He hit me.’ I went, ‘Yes. That’s the sport. He hits you. Why are you hitting him back with your fist?’ And they get thrown out of the game. I’d say that both the sports I’ve been in, anger is a part of it. Obviously, when you go through work as hard as these guys do to put these cars together and go through everything you’ve got to do to get ready for a race week and to have somebody take you out of a race, you can imagine how much that hurts. I think it’s a naturally part of what we do. I think you’ve got to handle it the right way and sometimes it’s hard.”
Would it be beneficial for Darrell Wallace Jr. to have sponsorship from minority owned companies?
“I’d love it. That would be great. We went to New York — Darrell (Wallace Jr.) — we went up. We had a program where we invited different companies in New York — I think there were six or seven that came — we made presentations to them and we would love that. I think it’s a matter of us reaching out and at some point I think that’s what we’ll start seeing.”
Were the meetings with minority owned companies helpful?
“Very — I felt like very helpful. I think we’ll wind up with a couple of people in there and a couple of corporations are going to wind up helping us. I thought they were beneficial. Darrell (Wallace Jr.) does a great job getting up in front and talking to people. He’s natural, he doesn’t worry about things and I think he represents himself great. I think going forward we would love for that to be the case.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR., No. 54 DefyDiabetes.com Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Is there a need to get more minorities interested in racing in order to have more participation?
“For sure. You can ask any African American that watches football and say, ‘Do you know who Darrell Wallace Jr. is?’ They will say, ‘Nope.’ That’s the problem — they don’t have anybody up in the top ranks to look at. That’s where I’m trying to break through and get to the top, get some races under my belt and hopefully get some wins under my belt and then you ask them a couple years down the road, ‘Yeah, I know that kid,’ or guy, or whatever I am in five years — little knucklehead or something. That’s the biggest thing. I have to get up there to get it out more. This is my foot in the door right now — the door is not open yet, I’m just holding it open right now with my foot and I have to keep pushing through to get it all the way open and land something full time and that’s the biggest thing. Before racing, I didn’t even watch racing. I only watched a couple laps with my dad and that would be it. I didn’t even think about racing before I started. I played basketball with no desire to race and we went out and got a go-kart and the rest is history. We raced every weekend, each and every month, whatever you want to say — we raced everyday and it was just fun. The biggest thing is getting the kid in a kart — they have to buy it and that’s the biggest thing. You can go to a sporting store and buy a basketball for 30 bucks or a football for 30 bucks — you go buy a go-kart and that’s 300 bucks. What are you going to get? A basketball or a go- kart? That’s the biggest thing is the financial backing there is when you’re starting so young is that the parents — my dad has to believe in me that I could go out there and do it. Spent a lot of money — he’s crazy, but he believed in me and I never gave up. We would have races where we didn’t finish, but I would still go out the next weekend and we’d back it up with a win. That’s the biggest thing is just sticking through it and having the financial
backing either from parents or if you’re good enough at age nine to get yourself a sponsor then more power to you — I couldn’t do it. It finally came and now we’re just going with it now. Once I get up there, I think we’ll be looking at some more faces in the sport.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR., No. 54 DefyDiabetes.com Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch
Motorsports (continued)
Where is the line between dirty racing and short track bumping and banging?
“Well, that’s not really my call there. All I’ve got to say is I’m glad I’m at home — my Late Model is being built right now and I don’t have an East (NASCAR K&N Pro Series East) car to run, so I was good. But, you know, its short track racing. You’re going to get that and it’s going to happen. I don’t know why everybody thought it was the end of the world when wrecks were going to happen. Like I said, with close quarter racing like that it’s going to get heated.”
How will teams continue to find sponsorships for minority drivers?
“Before the funding starts in the top-three series, you’ve got to deliver, so that’s the biggest part. Once you get in the sport, you’ve got to stick with it and go through all the ups and downs and hula-hoops and everything to get to this point. That’s all I wanted to say.”
How can you learn as you move through the ranks in racing?
“The biggest thing is just moving up through the ranks and to a much faster car. You start out in go-karts and Bandolero — not much difference there just you have a full body around you now. Then moving up to Legends cars and Late Models — kind of the horsepower shifts there. It’s just all about the quicker you can learn, the better off you’re going to be. Taking as much information as you can from the other competitors — for me, Kyle Busch now. He’s my owner and teammate for some races. Just talking to him, picking his brain is the biggest thing and then using that to get you out there on the track and execute the things you need to do. The biggest thing for me is going to be learning the draft here — I did it in the ARCA race, but these things punch a bigger hole in the air, so the suck-up rate is going to be a lot faster. There’s a lot of things that I’ve been told in a matter of two days — it’s like an exam for high school and I hated exams. It’s tough. That’s the biggest thing is moving up to the bigger cars, the faster tracks and learning how to maintain it and be there for the end. Running so many races and so many laps in practice with my dad — we would run 200 laps in practice and other guys were just running 60. Who would be there at the end of the race fighting for the win? That would be me. That’s the biggest thing is just taking as much in as you can and taking that and what you’ve learned over the years and taking it with you. Learning from the experts too.”
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