Joe Gibbs Racing team dominance
The Joe Gibbs Racing team rides great at the start of the playoffs as part of the NASCAR cup series. The drivers of the mentioned team celebrated at both races held so far. Denny Hamlin took a close victory at Darlington. At Richmond celebrated Martin Truex Jr. and Hamlin was second. The third position was taken by another driver of the mentioned team, Christopher Bell. Hamlin led almost half of the race at Richmond and won both stages. In the end, however, his teammate from Joe Gibbs Racing celebrated. Despite the penalty, Truex Jr. won at Richmond.
“We got a little bit off track with our car in the middle of the race, but there, in the end, we definitely made the right adjustments and was coming, just a little bit too late,” Hamlin said. “We had a couple of slow stops under green. That’s kind of the difference.”
“Well, it’s gone time now,” Hamlin said. “Ultimately it’s the time where you’ve got to bring your best. All JGR teams had fast cars for all of us today, and we just — I really wish we would have got two in a row, but regardless, still a great day for our team.”
Joe Gibbs Racing faster than Hendrick Motorsports
The mentioned Bell also recorded an excellent placement, which should remove the dilemmas regarding the placement in the top 12 next weekend at Bristol.
“Yeah, I feel good about it, and Bristol is a really good race track for our company and me,” Bell said. “It’s just you can get caught up in stuff so easily at Bristol. It’s nice to have a buffer and hopefully, we can go to Bristol and have an uneventful event.”
In the regular part of the season, the Hendrick Motorsports team was much faster, but the situation changed drastically in the playoffs. For now, only Kyle Larson has secured a place in the top 12. Last year’s champion Chase Elliot has a very delicate position ahead of the next race as he has only 20 points more than the position which eliminate from the competition. Alex Bowman and William Byron are very close to not being in the top 12.