Joe Gibbs Racing will add young talent with more waiting in wings

Aric Almirola will go to Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, but new talent is coming up.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A lot of eyebrows were raised when Joe Gibbs Racing agreed earlier this year, seemingly without much fuss, to let 23-year-old Aric Almirola go to Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.

The youngster has shown considerable ability in the NASCAR Busch Series this year, winning the pole at Daytona in February and grabbing victories at Milwaukee, from the pole, and Clermont, Ind.

Almirola, who will continue with Gibbs’ Busch team until the end of this season, has already driven a Nextel Cup car for his new team and will share DEI’s No. 01 Chevrolet with Mark Martin in 2008.

But don’t fret for JGR, losing such a promising talent. There’s plenty more where Almirola came from.

The Gibbs team will add 22-year-old Cup wunderkind Kyle Busch, currently with Hendrick Motorsports, to its star duo of two-time champion Tony Stewart, a 36-year-old warhorse, and 26-year-old Denny Hamlin, a title contender in his second full season. All three are in this year’s 12-man Chase for the championship field.

But that’s just at the Cup level.

Others climbing the ladder

In the pipeline, there is 17-year-old phenom Joey Logano, about to wrap up the Busch East Series title, 19-year-old Brad Coleman, driving a part-time Busch schedule with considerable success, and 17-year-old Marc Davis, like Almirola a product of the diversity program begun in 2003 as a cooperative effort between JGR and late NFL star Reggie White.

Logano, who was 15 when he was first picked as a can’t-miss star by Martin, may be the best of the bunch.

In preparation for his rookie season in Busch East, Logano made two NASCAR Busch West Series starts last year. He won his debut at Phoenix, while Davis finished second.

Logano has gone on to win five Busch East races this year, including a sweep of the two races at New Hampshire International Speedway — the latest last Saturday to all but wrap up the series title. He only needs to start the season-finale Friday at Dover to become the first rookie champion since the series began in 1989.

“I knew we were definitely a championship contender as soon as we started with Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Logano, who came to Busch East from the USAR Hooter’s Pro Cup Series, where he was the division’s youngest competitor. “It’s a great organization.

“Getting all of that help there and the experience I had from Hooter’s Pro Cup last year, all of that stuff helped us coming into this season. And after winning so many races this year, it’s just been great.”

Davis has been a success

Davis, one of a handful of African American drivers participating in NASCAR racing, has been successful at every level so far. Last year, he earned a move to the next step with six victories in late model stock cars at Hickory, N.C.

He is currently 10th in the series standings, with four top-five finishes and five top-10s in 12 starts.

“It’s just a great opportunity, especially to be part of a team like Joe Gibbs Racing,” Davis said. “You have every resource and every opportunity to get ahead. You just have to do the job on the racetrack and the rest will take care of itself.”

Coleman, who became part of the Gibbs driver development program last year, is sharing a Busch Series ride this season with Stewart, Almirola and a 28-year-old prospect, Kevin Conway.

In just 14 races for JGR in 2007, Coleman has three top-fives, five top-10s and has finished in the top 20 nine times, along with winning the pole at Talladega.

And it doesn’t seem like his progress has been hampered by some long layoffs between starts.

Coleman has been jelling

After his first schedule gap, Coleman returned to post a top-10 at Talladega. Following a six week layoff, he finished second at Kentucky and fourth at Milwaukee. Following the next four-week layoff, he was running in the top 10 at St. Louis before a late-race crash. He followed that with a top-10 at Montreal and a top-five at Watkins Glen.

“I am really looking forward to being in the race car full time in 2008,” said Coleman, who will also race this week in Dover. “We have been blessed to have great success throughout the 2007 season, but not being in the car every week is tough. It is tough on the crew, tough on the driver, and even tough on the media.

“I was in the pits at Richmond supporting my team (two weeks ago) and the No. 18 (with Conway driving) was involved in an accident. The announcer at the track said ‘And Brad Coleman has just been involved in a wreck in Turn 2.’ I wasn’t even in the car that weekend.”

JGR president J.D. Gibbs, son of owner Joe Gibbs, gets excited when talking about the talent level on his team.

“These kids are pretty impressive,” he said. “They have so much talent and knowledge for their ages, but they’ve all been racing for a long time.”

JGR has made no secret of the fact it would like to eventually add a fourth car to its Cup stable.

“When the right sponsorship deal comes along and we feel the time is right, it will happen,” Gibbs said. “It looks like we won’t have to look very far to find a driver.”