Joe Gibbs Racing employs boring, but brilliant Chase strategy
For Joe Gibbs Racing, it was mission accomplished at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, as all four of the team’s drivers advanced to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Round of 8.
Denny Hamlin was the only JGR driver who came into the Hellman’s 500 behind the cutoff to advance in the Chase. And so Hamlin raced his ass off all afternoon, overcoming a pit-road speeding penalty to post a gritty third-place finish in the Hellman’s 500.
That result allowed Hamlin to tie Austin Dillon in points and advance ahead of Dillon on the basis of having a better finish in this round of the Chase.
Meanwhile, JGR drivers Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch finished the race in 28th through 30th place, respectively, part of a predetermined strategy to hang way back and avoid getting caught up if there was a big crash -- which, as it turns out, there wasn’t.
From JGR’s standpoint it was smart strategy, brilliant even -- Kenseth, Edwards and Busch all had big points cushions coming into the race and didn’t need good finishes to advance.
As a result, the Chase Round of 8 will feature four JGR drivers, fully half of the championship contenders.
“It’s a playoff and you’ve got to say what is smart and so you certainly don’t want to make a big mistakes of some kind and cost your sponsor and everybody that’s wrapped into this,” said team owner Joe Gibbs in defending the strategy to play defense and run out back.
“You can’t afford to go up there and get wrecked and not have a chance to race for a championship, so it was just kind of the cards we were dealt and we had to play them,” said Kenseth.
“I don’t think any of us had any fun and none of us enjoyed, but it was just what we had to do to make sure we got to Martinsville and trying to race four more weeks and hopefully have a shot at the four of us trying to race for a championship,” Kenseth added.
“It’s frustrating, but to have a dull day today it’s certainly going to make for a heck of a lot more exciting days down the road,” said Busch.
But, you know, racers are supposed to race, and this was anything but racing. JGR fans who came to Talladega didn’t get to see any racing from any of the team’s drivers other than Hamlin.
Joey Logano of Team Penske went on to win the race and afterward his boss, Roger Penske, a man who knows a thing or two about team orders, had a subtle dig for JGR’s strategy.
“I see Gibbs had a plan in the back,” said Penske. “We had a plan in the front.”
And the plan in the front was a lot more interesting to watch than the plan in the back.