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IN THE COCKPIT: Tony Gibson - All-Star Race Matters
The Sprint All-Star Race is about being the best of the best, bragging rights and a lot of money...
Tony Gibson  |  Posted May 19, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Crew chief Tony Gibson (Right) and driver Ryan Newman (Left) are focused on making the Chase this weekend. (Photo: Getty Images)
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I don’t think I would be going out on a limb if I said this is one of the more fun weekends on our schedule.

It’s a fun weekend for everybody because you have some extra time at home – you are in your own bed – and the race doesn’t really matter, points-wise. But when it comes right down to it, it does matter. It matters because you want to win. You want to be the best.

It’s awesome. It’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of fun. There are no points involved, so things happen. You can beat and bang, and even wreck people – and there’s not the negative points impact. It’s a fun race to win. I’ve been fortunate enough to win it. It’s a big shootout race. Bring the best of the best. When you win that one, it’s almost like winning the Daytona 500.

Because it’s at Charlotte, it’s almost like everybody’s there. Everybody brings their families and friends, and more of the people from the shop are able to come to the race track because we’re racing at home. This is everybody’s home track, so the All-Star Race is big. It’s all about being the best of the best. It’s about bragging rights. It’s about a lot of money.

And I think a lot of us look at the weekend like an extra practice, really, for when the points do count in the Coca-Cola 600.

A lot of people don’t realize this race can actually be a test for the 600, but it does help a lot because, not only can we learn about the car’s setup and how it worked, we also are able to learn about the tires. The wear of the tires – stickers vs. scuffs, rights vs. lefts, pitting vs. not pitting – those are the things that can really help us the following weekend.

The other really cool thing about the All-Star Race is all the attention focused on the pit crews, not only at the race but also during the week. On Thursday night, we have the pit crew competition. It’s all about those guys and what they do each and every week – and nothing else. It’s not about the car or the driver. That event gives those guys some momentum heading into Charlotte this weekend.

And then, on Friday night, the pit crew is part of qualifying. The field is set by how you qualify, and the pit stop during qualifying pretty much determines where you start. You could be a half-second faster than everybody, speed-wise, on the race track, and the pit stop during the qualifying run could either help or hurt you.

The All-Star Race is all about the team. Everything we do this weekend is based off pit road. It really puts the pressure on the pit crew, but I think they like it, too, because it’s their time in the spotlight and they don’t get that very often.

The race is divided up into four segments – 50 laps, 20 laps, 20 laps and 10 laps. You can’t really have a strategy because everyone is on a different agenda and you really never know what’s going to happen. Two years in a row, we’ve had a shot to win this race. Back in 2009, Ryan was passing the guys with just a few laps to go on the high side of the racetrack and got wrecked there when he got squeezed into the wall. And we feel that race was ours – Ryan was on a tear and he had the fastest car out there. Then, last year, we drove all the way up to third – we were passing the 48 car when he spun and the yellow came out. We thought we were third, but when the yellow flag comes out, the rules says we go back to the last completed lap run so that put us back in sixth and we just ran out of time and laps, and we couldn’t pass those guys.

The only real strategy anyone can have is to still be in the race for the last 10 laps, and to be the fastest car on the racetrack in those final 10 laps. That’s when the real fireworks are going to happen, and I don’t think the fans will be disappointed at all this year.

We’ve always run really well at Charlotte and we’ve run strong in the All-Star Race each year. I feel like we have a shot to win it, for sure. Ryan is the best I’ve ever seen in a 10-lap shootout. There’s nobody I would rather have driving my car when it comes to that. It’s just a lot of fun, and we’re pretty excited.

Tony Gibson is the crew chief for Ryan Newman and the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet at Stewart-Haas Racing. Gibson led the No. 39 team to a 15th-place finish in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings, earning his career-first Cup win with Newman in the spring race at Phoenix. He finished ninth with Newman in the 2009 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup in Stewart-Haas Racing’s inaugural season. Prior to joining SHR, Gibson served as the crew chief for Mark Martin, Aric Almirola, Steve Park and Michael Waltrip at Dale Earnhardt Inc. from 2003 to 2008. He also worked as Jeff Gordon’s car chief at Hendrick Motorsports from 1998 to 2002, after working for two-time series champion Bill Elliott and former champion Alan Kulwicki.
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