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- Mar 20, 2019
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It took a NASCAR Hall of Famer to help talk Ron Rivera into taking the Washington job.
So it stands to reason another star from the racing business is helping him try to get his new team back to a championship level.
Via Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, Rivera and seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson have been swapping ideas about culture-building for years.
The two first met when Rivera was coaching the Panthers (since much of the NASCAR world is centered in Charlotte), and they got together to trade ideas on how to run organizations. Johnson and his longtime crew chief Chad Knaus brought Rivera to their Hendrick Motorsports shop, where the football coach was impressed with their attention to detail from the cleanliness of the shop floors to the way the crew kept their shirts tucked in as they worked on cars.
“The culture has to be so strong that it doesn’t matter who the person is,” Rivera says. “The culture is so strong that the players are absorbed into it and become part of it and do it willingly, and if someone is not willing, then the guys around them are so strong that they will pull them into the culture. You’re able to assimilate guys into what we’re doing.”
Likewise, Johnson was immediately struck by Rivera’s natural leadership ability, and they brought the then-Panthers coach in to give a motivational speech to the race team. Rivera gave the a version of his “be where your feet are” speech that his football team is familiar with, as he emphasizes to them to be present and aware of what they’re doing in each moment.
“He is so unique in that space,” Johnson said. “Something draws me to him, and I almost want to do the things he says, let him coach me.”
Rivera has a unique challenge in front of him — one that NASCAR owner and former Washington coach Joe Gibbs talked to him about. But as he embarks on it, he’s being careful to pick up tips on running a stable organization, for a football team which hasn’t seen victory lane in decades.