How come?
I think that when you’re running good, there’s definitely way more pressure on you than when you’re not running good. That’s when it makes it difficult.

As the season continued on, did JGR and Yamaha begin to collaborate to get the YZ450F race bike operating at an optimal level? During the summer months, the bike appeared to keep getting faster and faster.
We definitely worked closer this year than we have in the past years. They have a lot of valuable information that comes from Japan and the R&D side and the things they are working on. Every little thing helps, for sure. I don’t think it was one big major change or anything like that, but just adding up all the work we’ve done over the years—I think the bike is really good right now.

When Justin went out and won at Budds Creek, what did that mean for you and the team?
It was good. I was pumped for the guys, I was pumped for Justin, and I was pumped for the guys that work hard every day. It justifies everything they do when you can run up front and win. It was a weird one, though, because it was so muddy out and Justin was laughing because he said, “Hey, everybody thinks I run good in the mud now!” And then he said, “I run [good] when it’s not muddy, too.” And next week he proved that. It was funny. We laughed about that all week. I get excited for the guys. It’s a lot of work and a lot of travel. It’s the same amount of work no matter what. It’s the same if you run up front or not run up front. It’s definitely rewarding when you can do it.

Joe Gibbs Racing has been competing now since 2008. Is the team holding true to the vision you’ve had for it?
The reality of it is that it takes a long time to get established and win championships. It took us ten years on the Cup [NASCAR] side. So if you use that kind of as the gauge, it takes time. The hard part about racing is just financially making it ten years. I don’t care what form of racing you’re in; I think that’s a huge accomplishment going into the next year. Also, we’ve got a lot more resources than we did when we started, and we kind of keep gaining every day. If you look at it, that’s kind of what my dad [Joe Gibbs] says. He says, “Hey, it takes ten years before you really start hitting it.” You don’t really want to believe that the first couple of years, but the truth of it is that’s how long it takes. I’m excited about it. We’ve definitely had ups and downs over those years, but in those hard times it definitely makes you a tougher person.

And as you have alluded to in the past, racing motorcycles is a lot different than racing cars.
The biggest variable is just the health of the riders. I don’t know how they do it. It would be like playing twenty-nine football games. It’s tough. It wears on them. I think it’s too many races; it’s too long of a season for what they actually do. We definitely want to go out there and perform and put on a good show for the fans, but you also want to have them around for a while. You don’t want to grind them to a pulp and spit them out. You see a lot of guys get worn out. It’s so physically demanding on them, for sure. The car stuff—I’m not saying it’s not hard, but this is a lot harder physically. You have to be in really good shape, especially on the outdoor side. And the whole industry is a little bit different. I just go back to how fortunate we are because we get to leverage the whole car side because, whether it’s machining or engineering or questions we have, we have a huge operation over there that we just need to walk over to and talk to them and ask for advice from the fifty-plus engineers they have on staff. If we need stuff machined, they’re running twenty hours a day now, so that’s a huge benefit and something we’re thankful for.

So there is both an engineering and technology transfer that goes from the JGR NASCAR operation and right into the supercross team?
Well, yeah. There’s not a ton of crossover, but racing is racing. The day-to-day stuff, accounting and sponsorships and relationships and things like that, are the same, but the bikes are a lot different. Obviously, a ton of engineering doesn’t cross over, but if we want to build a new part or check something out, those guys are really valuable because they’ve done it hundreds of times over there. We don’t just sit there and think about what we’re going to do; we just walk over there and grab one of those guys and talk to them for ten minutes and then hit it. That’s awesome. We bought a lot of equipment last year. We just bought a CNC machine [Computer Numerical Control] that we’ll move into the Cup shop and have a fully dedicated shift on every day. That’s exciting to me, and something I’ve wanted for a long time. When it comes to making parts and pieces, we’ve got that covered, and we can do that really fast and have a really fast turn-around. It’s a huge benefit.

You played NCAA college football for the Stanford Cardinals. Last time I checked, they were pretty good. Does any of that football stuff find its way into the JGR supercross squad?
I love the sport. It’s a tough, tough sport. I coach peewee football every year, and I’ve got the 9-year-olds out there—they don’t understand anything [laughs]. You’re teaching them and saying, “Hey, look, we have to work hard. This is not easy.” It’s fun to go through the whole process with them. I look at my guys over here, and the only one who really reminds me of a football player is Weston. I told Weston, “You missed your calling, man; you’re a middle linebacker.” As big is he is [laughs].... We tease him about that. I admire the football guys. They’re studs. I think the moto guys are right up there with them. What they do is amazing.