Gluck: Despite success, Joe Gibbs Racing team takes it one race at a time

LONG POND, Pa. – When three-time Super Bowl winner Joe Gibbs was coaching in the NFL, he used to fret over his players getting too cocky.

It’s so difficult to stay on top in pro sports, he figured, that it wasn’t worth tempting fate by bragging about success or the strength of a team.

“I used to be so paranoid in football,” he said. “Don't say anything, keep your mouth shut. We're trying to just beat somebody, sneak up on them."

So even though his Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR team can seemingly do no wrong these days – one of Gibbs’ Toyotas won Sunday at Pocono Raceway for the fourth straight week and fifth time in the last six races – the coach isn’t doing a victory dance just yet.

“You’re never more than one race away from getting pounded,” he said.

Of course, JGR has been the one doing all the pounding lately. Even when it seemed Sunday would suddenly turn into one giant gut punch, it ended up being another day of celebration -- an unlikely one at that.

With three laps to go, Kyle Busch suddenly took the race lead when Joey Logano ran out of fuel and steamed toward what would have been his fourth consecutive win. But Busch ran out of gas with roughly one mile to go in a 400-mile race – a turn of events that would have normally been devastating for a team owner.

Instead, Gibbs could afford to smile after one of his other drivers – Matt Kenseth – stormed past Busch and scored yet another win for JGR.

So Toyota has now won eight of the last 16 races – all with JGR – and is enjoying a run unlike any other in its history as a NASCAR manufacturer.

“I keep telling my guys, ‘You know, this isn’t going to last,'" Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson told USA TODAY Sports. "So enjoy every single win, because this is such a hard sport.’ It is truly something remarkable.”

Kenseth recalled the time less than five months ago when Gibbs yelled at his employees to pick up the pace during a company meeting ("I was like, 'Man, he's really mad,'" Kenseth said). JGR had been a few ticks slower than the powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports group (which includes Stewart-Haas Racing) for more than a year, and Gibbs was frustrated at seeing 2015 start the same way.

But now it’s Hendrick and Chevrolet who seem to be chasing Gibbs and Toyota with just five races remaining before the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins. On Friday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. noted Hendrick was “not on top of the mountain anymore – at least by ourselves.”

It hasn’t gone unnoticed in the NASCAR garage that cars like Hendrick-powered Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch – SHR drivers who were the fastest every week in the first half of the season – now seem to be out-paced at times by some of the JGR entries.

“Normally, Hendrick Motorsports never goes down,” Kyle Busch said Sunday. “They’re always the strong ones you’re chasing and have legitimate chances to win. It is definitely not quite their time right now, so we’ll see what they do.”

And really, that's the big question: What kind of counterpunch can Hendrick come up with before the Chase begins?

Gibbs and Toyota are well aware their competition is fierce – which has made the championship race wide open heading into the final stretch of the regular season.

Just look at Pocono: It wasn’t a Toyota or Chevrolet who had the fastest car – Ford’s Joey Logano did. And Wilson noted that a closer examination of the race would show Kenseth’s engine was bogging down on restarts – an issue that must be explored despite the victory.

“Honestly, I’m uncomfortable with that label (of the manufacturer to beat right now),” Wilson said. “This is such a humbling sport. You cannot rest, you cannot think you’re better than them.”

Still, he acknowledged it was fun to see all of TRD’s hard work pay dividends – even if the length of time to enjoy the rewards was uncertain. Wilson grinned when he recalled the delight he felt hearing NBC Sports Network’s broadcasters discuss Toyota’s strength during the race on Sunday.

“I’m like, ‘Wow. When is the last time that happened?’” Wilson said. “It’s always, ‘Hendrick horsepower this, Hendrick horsepower that.’ It feels so good because we’ve put so much effort into it.

"But we don’t try to think we’re better than anybody. We won this weekend, but that doesn’t mean we’ll win next weekend. We just have to keep pushing.”

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck

PHOTOS: 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup race winners