The 2019 season was nothing short of spectacular. Gravel won 12 times and once again finished third in the final standings. If the story ended right there it would have been a satisfying season for all concerned.
However, some wins mean a bit more than others, and for Gravel and JJR the biggest score of all came in the most important race of the year.
Heading into the Knoxville Nationals there were a lot of eyes on JJR. Suddenly Jeff Gordon was involved with the team and, with a high-profile sponsor like Axalta on board, a lot was expected of them.
Bobbi Johnson got an up close and personal look at what racing looks like when you interact with corporate America. There are meetings, approvals, more meetings, more lawyers, and then one more meeting.
“It was a different feeling,” Bobbi said. “I‘m not going to lie. From 2010, when we started this team, up until 2018 when he passed, Jason did most of the dealings. I handled apparel, hung out with families of sponsors and just had a good time with them. You can ask anybody at my T-shirt trailer, I‘m not good at asking for money. I struggle with that, and I stress about it.
“The wow part was that David hooked us up with Jeff Gordon; but there were so many countless hours trying to figure this out, car schemes, what Axalta was going to be happy with, and timelines. It was like, we aren‘t NASCAR people; how are we going to do this? One of my sponsors said, ‘We got this Bobbi, we are going to be alright.‘ But timelines and conference calls and stuff I had never thought of made it hard. We had never been exposed to a lot of this on the dirt side, how it is run, and how it is done. It was just a whole new side of things.
“Then the car had to be hand painted. Try to get somebody to hand paint a car these days.”
The team secured the help of Sean Cain of Blackbeard and painter Noah Ennis of Shell Shock. With plenty of hard work by all, eventually everyone was satisfied that the final product met the exact specifications of the primary sponsor.
By Saturday night Bobbi, and undoubtedly many on her team, were worn thin. Then came the payoff.
“Oh my gosh,” she exclaimed. “We not only won the race, but also the best appearing car and crew. It was a trifecta. It was so worth the hours and the crying. I remember walking down there thinking about who I was going to hug. It was always the driver I was married to. Then I thought about what Jason would say. He would say, ‘You had better enjoy it because you don‘t get here all the time. You aren‘t guaranteed you will get here tomorrow or a year later.‘
“That was his whole thing. Stay after, have a good time. Talk, joke, make memories, because you don‘t know if you will ever win another race.”
In an odd way, the future of the team may have been influenced by all that transpired at Knoxville.
As for Gravel, he had a desire and opportunities to race in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Philip Dietz, now a two-time Knoxville Nationals winning crew chief, still harbored a dream of owning his own team.
At the same time, the overall demand of being a team owner and a mom were weighing a bit heavier on Bobbi, not that the 2020 season was anything to be ashamed of.
JJR nearly won the World of Outlaws owner points and Gravel notched seven victories. Still, the time had come for a meeting of the minds.
During the 2020 season, Philip enjoyed a taste of running his own operation. He had purchased some equipment directly from JJR and eventually acquired a new car as well. This side project began after a series of conversations with Parker Price-Miller.
“We chose him to be a fill-in driver for David,” he said, “and they threw out the idea of doing some other races on the side. I was sort of against it, because I thought we had our plate full trying to prepare for the 2020 season with David.”
Then he thought about it a bit more. After all, there were backup cars in the shop, and it prompted him to formulate a plan. He could oversee both cars and run one under his name, while Price-Miller provided the truck and trailer.
When Philip laid everything on the table, all key parties were on board.
“It was a perfect situation,” Dietz says. “And we put together what I would consider to be a part-time schedule of 40 races. It actually ended up turning into more than that.”
It was also very successful. In July, Philip was able to help Price-Miller to victory lane at 24 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa, in the No. 14 Dietz Motorsports car, and then saw Gravel take the win at Wisconsin‘s Wilmot Raceway the next night in the JJR No. 41.
He became the first World of Outlaws crew chief to pull that trick since Karl Kinser won back-to-back races in two different operations with Mark and Steve Kinser.
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