Coy Gibbs’ JGRMX dream is over.
Was it a success?

WORDS: JASON WEIGANDT

When a massively successful operation like Joe Gibbs Racing turned its attention to motocross, success seemed like a given. Joe Gibbs is the only person in both the pro football and NASCAR Halls of Fame. He won three Super Bowls as a coach, then turned his attention to racing. The ranks of rich, famous, smart, and powerful operations that tried to conquer automobile racing—and NASCAR in particular—is filled with failure, yet Gibbs created arguably the strongest NASCAR organization in the last decade, even while aligning with an upstart manufacturer to NASCAR in Toyota.

When the dirt bike team won the first supercross of its second year of existence—the prestigious season-opening Anaheim 1 with Josh Grant—Coach Gibbs drew immediate parallels to the NASCAR team, which won the prestigious season-opening Daytona 500 in its second year. If JGRMX continued to win races, it would change the way the game was played. Eastern-based. Private ownership. Team unity.

A dozen years later, it didn’t take. The team did not win as expected, so it didn’t revolutionize the game.

What is it about motorcycle racing that proved different?