Born in Mocksville, North Carolina, Gibbs grew up in the American South and attended Cerritos College before earning a bachelor's degree in 1964 and a master's degree in 1966 from San Diego State University. He began coaching in 1964 under Don Coryell at San Diego State, and worked his way through stops at Florida State, USC, Arkansas, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before joining the San Diego Chargers as offensive coordinator in 1979.
In San Diego, Gibbs was a primary architect of the "Air Coryell" offense, a pass-first system that pushed quarterback Dan Fouts and the Chargers to set multiple offensive records, including averaging more than 400 yards of offense per game in 1980. That success brought Gibbs to the attention of the Washington Redskins, who hired him as head coach in 1981.
Gibbs's first season in Washington began with five straight losses, but the team rallied to an 8–8 record. In his second season, shortened by a players' strike, the Redskins went 8–1 and defeated the Miami Dolphins 27–17 in Super Bowl XVII. A second Super Bowl title came at Super Bowl XXII after the 1987 season, when quarterback Doug Williams — whom Gibbs had championed since their time together in Tampa — led a dominant performance over the Denver Broncos, 42–10. A third championship followed at Super Bowl XXVI after the 1991 season, a 37–24 victory over the Buffalo Bills.
Gibbs retired for the first time on March 5, 1993, with a regular-season record of 124–60 and a postseason record of 16–5. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996. He returned to coach Washington a second time from 2004 to 2007, guiding the team to two playoff appearances before retiring again in January 2008. He remains the only head coach to win three Super Bowls with three different starting quarterbacks: Joe Theismann, Doug Williams, and Mark Rypien.
Gibbs founded Joe Gibbs Racing in 1992, a year before his first NFL retirement. The team's first driver was Dale Jarrett, competing with the number 18 and Interstate Batteries sponsorship. Under Gibbs, the organization grew into one of NASCAR's premier teams, winning Cup Series championships with Bobby Labonte in 2000, Tony Stewart in 2002 and 2005, and Kyle Busch in 2015 and 2019. Additional championships have come in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series, with drivers including Daniel Suarez, Ty Gibbs, and Sammy Smith.
The team currently fields four full-time entries in the NASCAR Cup Series, with cars for Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, and Ty Gibbs — Joe's grandson. Gibbs's son J. D. served as team president for many years before his death on January 11, 2019, following a battle with neurological brain disease. Hamlin won the Daytona 500 shortly after and dedicated the victory to J. D.
Gibbs briefly expanded into NHRA drag racing between 1995 and 2000, fielding Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock entries sponsored by McDonald's and Interstate Batteries. Jim Yates won two Pro Stock world championships for the team in 1996 and 1997. Gibbs ended his NHRA involvement after the 2000 season to focus solely on NASCAR. In 2008 he also launched JGRMX, a motocross and supercross team based in Huntersville, North Carolina.
Gibbs was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2020, completing a dual-sport Hall of Fame achievement that no other individual has matched. The Pro Football Hall of Fame described him as "the greatest multi-sport winner in American professional sports history." His ability to build championship organizations with different personnel across vastly different disciplines — NFL football and stock car racing — defines his legacy as an exceptional leader and organizer rather than merely a tactician.