RIP Coy Gibbs

It's with heavy hearts that Racer X reports the passing of Coy Gibbs, the owner and leader of the Joe Gibbs Racing MX team that competed from 2008-2020. Coy had moved over to the NASCAR side of the Joe Gibbs Racing operation, and his son Ty had won the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship yesterday in Phoenix. Coy passed in his sleep last night. The NASCAR Cup Championship finale takes place this afternoon in Phoenix. 

Coy is the son of NFL and NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs. After Joe retired from the NFL with multiple Superbowl Championships with the Washington Red Skins, he moved into auto racing, first with drag racing and then into NASCAR. Joe's son JD played a huge part in the NASCAR operation, while Coy branched out and created the JGR motocross team. Coy left a mark as an innovator, employing team concepts from his football background and a private-team business model like the JGR NASCAR team. The JGR MX team never captured the championship it had hoped for, but the team won races with the likes of Josh Grant, James Stewart and Justin Barcia, and you can see some of the concepts Coy had preached 15 years ago--like riders riding and training together, at one facility, outside of the factory network in California--have become common practice today.

Beyond that, Coy was one of the great personalities of the motocross and supercross pits, and that personality flowed straight into the staff members he picked to be at his side. Everyone in the sport was fortunate that the Gibbs family spent a dozen years putting a focus on dirt bike racing.

Sadly, Coy's brother JD passed in 2019. Coy moved full-time into the NASCAR side but kept the JGRMX operation going until the team could no longer find the funding to continue racing. 

Over his time in this sport, Coy Gibbs left a mark that will not be forgotten. Our thoughts are prayers are with the Gibbs family and the entire JGR team.

Coy Gibbs was 49 years old.