When Joe Gibbs got angry, Joe Gibbs Racing started winning

Something needed to be done. Staring at another underwhelming year just weeks into the season, Joe Gibbs Racing needed a spark to prevent a repeat of 2014, when Toyota’s flagship organization produced a mere two victories.

That inspiration came in the form of a speech by the team’s namesake, who knows a thing or two about motivation having coached the NFL Washington franchise to three Super Bowl triumphs.

“We had the longest competition meeting I’ve ever been a part,” Denny Hamlin said. “Joe raised his voice, which doesn’t happen very often, told us to get off our tails and go to work, and we all did it.”

Said Matt Kenseth: “Coach always gets mad when I say this -- he kind of yelled at us in the meeting. The only time I think he’s yelled since I’ve been here.”

Gibbs downplays his role in spurring JGR to nine victories in the last 15 races, instead crediting company-wide hard work for the turnaround.

Others, though, quickly point towards the leadership the Hall of Fame head coach exhibited to overcome injury, illness and early season underperformance to position each of JGR’s four drivers -- Hamlin, Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards -- with a realistic chance of winning the championship when the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs begins Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.

“Coach is JGR,” Edwards said. “He is the guy that keeps everything going. He’s our leader.”

The year began with great promise. Having signed Edwards, a marquee free agent, JGR expanded to four cars and featured the deepest driver lineup in the garage. It seemed a given the trips to victory lane would be frequent and the team would seriously push for its first championship since 2005 and the first-ever for Toyota, which entered NASCAR’s top division in 2007.

But the year abruptly took a jarring turn when Busch crashed and injured himself in an Xfinity Series race the day before the season-opening Daytona 500. Having suffered a broken right leg and broken left foot, Busch would miss 11 races recuperating before returning Memorial Day weekend.

Further issues arose when Gibbs’ eldest son, J.D., the president of JGR, announced in March he would begin undergoing treatment for symptoms impacting areas of brain function.

All the while, JGR continued to lack competitiveness. Its cars were frequently outperformed by Ford-backed Team Penske and Chevrolet-supported Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing, which combined to win the first five races. This nadir prompted the meeting where Gibbs laid out his expectations very succinctly.

“He makes you want to better,” Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson told SB Nation. “I’ve never seen anyone in the sport as driven and hard working as Joe Gibbs. He’ll call me at 10 o’clock at night (Pacific Time) -- and he’s on the East Coast -- and he’ll want to talk about what we’re doing on the engines. His leadership is such that it’s inspiring. And I’m a better leader because of Joe Gibbs. He holds us to really high level and he sets the example.”

Shortly after the assembly where Wilson says Gibbs “lit up the room,” Hamlin would win at Martinsville followed two weeks later by Kenseth taking the checkered flag at Bristol.

“The leadership at the top with Coach and J.D. -- they’re all-in and very competitive,” Kenseth’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff told SB Nation. “Whatever we need to be competitive, win races and bid for championships that’s what they do. It’s a lot of fun working for them.”

Martinsville and Bristol were only the beginning of what would be a summer where JGR flexed its superiority on a near weekly basis. The team posted a series-best 11 victories in total, including wins in nine of the past 15 races and three of NASCAR’s four major events -- Coca-Cola 600 (Edwards), Brickyard 400 (Busch) and Southern 500 (Edwards).

“The start of the year I can only imagine how tough for him all of this was and if you look at the performance it’s just steadily gone up and it just seems to be getting better and better, and I think that comes from just people working hard and working together not losing sight of the goal,” Edwards said. “It’s neat to be a part of something like that and to see it all come together.”

An indelible moment encapsulating JGR’s ascent as NASCAR’s preeminent force occurred Saturday night in the regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway. During one extended portion Kenseth, Busch, Edwards and Hamlin, in some order, held the top-four positions. Kenseth, who would win for the third time in six races, and Hamlin combined to lead 94 percent of all laps.

Adding to the scope of JGR’s supremacy, its wins have come on a diversified array of tracks -- from short tracks and superspeedways to road courses and intermediate sized ovals -- and under an ever-changing rules package comprising three different variations.

“We’re having multiple drivers win races,” Wilson said. “But it’s also we’re winning horsepower races, we’re winning fuel-mileage races, we’re winning on big and short tracks. And we’re just not winning by specializing on one kind of track, we can win anywhere.”

With success that’s shed JGR of its underachieving label -- it’s the only team with more than three drivers in the Chase -- comes heightened expectations. Hamlin and Busch, who’ve been with the team since 2006 and 2008, respectively, say this is the most confidence company-wide they have ever felt.

Yet just as he demanded better results back in the spring, the man leading JGR now has a different message for his team on the dawn of the deciding 10 races of the season.

“Just like us right now being successful, you know that all those other teams out there, they’re coming,” Gibbs said. “It’s a very competitive thing, pro sports. The hardest thing in pro sports is staying up there. So that will be our challenge now.”