Kurt Busch’s Daytona 500 win fulfills lifelong dream for crew chief Tony Gibson

Every February when Tony Gibson entered Daytona International Speedway he would always ask himself, “Is this the year I win the Daytona 500?” That yearning to win went beyond the fact that it represented NASCAR’s signature race. For the veteran crew chief, it was personal.

A Daytona Beach, Fla., native, Gibson was born at a hospital less than two miles from the track, where his mom worked in the ticket office. Growing up, he, his father and brothers, would build cars for area short-track drivers and they would dream of one day competing and winning at the 2.5-mile track that hosted NASCAR’s top division every year; the speedway that was virtually in their backyard.

Gibson moved to North Carolina and began his NASCAR career in the late 1980s, eventually landing a spot as a crew member for Alan Kulwicki, the mercurial owner-driver who operated his team on a limited budget. Improbably, Kulwicki won the 1992 Cup Series in what is widely regarded as one the sport’s greatest Cinderella stories.

Gradually Gibson climbed up the NASCAR ladder, first as a crew member for the likes of Kulwicki and Jeff Gordon, and later as the crew chief for drivers such as Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, and several others.

The easygoing, genial Gibson earned a reputation for not only constructing fast cars, but as the ideal crew chief to be paired with drivers who were thought difficult to work with. The driver whisperer, if you will.

When Gibson joined Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009, he was first teamed with Ryan Newman and the two would win three races and twice qualified for the playoffs in their four years together. He was then tasked with being Danica Patrick’s crew chief in her full-time debut in 2013, a job that thrust Gibson in the spotlight, but a role his personality made him well-suited for.

Even though she never had better results than when Gibson was leading her team and calling the shots, Patrick thought she needed a different crew chief if she was to make the next step in her development. It was a decision Patrick would later admit she regretted.

SHR assigned Gibson another driver, Kurt Busch, with a reputation for being short-tempered and hard on his crew chiefs. Before he arrived at SHR, Busch’s career had been star-crossed. He won the 2004 Cup Series championship, but had also been twice suspended — once by his former team in 2005 following a confrontation with a police officer, and once in 2012 by NASCAR after physically threatening a reporter.

But just as he did with Patrick, Gibson’s fatherly ways have helped smooth out Busch’s edginess since their union in 2015. The mid-race outbursts over the radio that were once a staple of his career are now largely absent, replaced by the confidence that his crew chief, affectionately nicknamed “Old Man,” is confidently and competently handling matters.

The strength of their relationship was on full display in Sunday’s Daytona 500.

After Busch sustained damaged in the crash-filled race, Gibson adroitly managed NASCAR’s new five-minute clock that required teams make repairs within the allotted amount of time, returning Busch to the track with a car still capable of contending. And when his rear-view mirror came apart, Busch didn’t panic nor did he vent. Something he would’ve been prone to do in years past. Instead, Gibson’s calmness over the radio assuaged Busch, who only asked that spotter Tony Raines take a more hands-on approach in relaying what was happening behind him.

“Tony Gibson is an incredible crew chief, I can’t thank him enough,” Busch said. “When you have a crew chief that grows up in the shadows of the grandstands here in Daytona, you know you have the best guy because his heart is in it. That’s what Daytona is about. You have to give it your heart.”

With Gibson and team doing their part, Busch did his by passing Kyle Larson for the lead on the final lap. The win was not only Busch’s first in 18 Daytona 500 attempts, but also the first for his crew chief who fulfilled a lifelong dream.

“My dad, he worked two jobs, I had two other brothers that raced, dad had to work night and day and everything he had to make sure we could race and have fun,” Gibson said. “So my mom and dad are the ones I thought about very first thing.

“As a little kid I always dreamed about being a crew chief and then winning the Daytona 500 as a crew chief and it took me 31 years I think to finally get it done.”

Gibson, 52, doesn’t know how much longer he’ll continue as crew chief. In recent years he’s battled an assortment of ailments, everything from appendicitis to kidney stones to a gall bladder infection. He acknowledges his career is closer to the end then the beginning.

However, feeling healthy and with a championship-contending driver, he’s not ready to walk away just yet.

“To come here and do this is amazing,” Gibson said. “I’m getting old, towards the end of my deal. It’s nice to be able to get this done … You’re only as good as your last win. So this means more to me than anything I’ve done. I won the championship in 1992 with Alan Kulwicki, but this here is huge.”