What to make of Joe Gibbs Racing's slow start through five races?

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer 

Take one look at the top 10 of the NASCAR Cup Series standings, and there is something that definitely attracts attention.

It’s not a good thing for those who follow Joe Gibbs Racing.

Only one JGR driver, Martin Truex Jr., sits in the top 10. And he’s eighth.

It wasn’t that way a week ago. But after his early exit at Atlanta, Kyle Busch dropped from second to 11th in the standings.

The other two JGR drivers? Don’t look in the top 20. Don’t even look in the top 25.

Denny Hamlin sits 26th, and Christopher Bell is 30th.

Now, it’s not time to panic. There is still reason to believe that all four drivers could find their way into the postseason, just as they did last year. So don’t sweat it too much, JGR fans. And don’t celebrate yet, JGR haters.

Again, we are just five races into the season. There are 21 races left for drivers to earn one of the 16 playoff spots.

But no one likes to have to climb out of a hole. Hamlin is 47 points behind the current playoff cutoff; Bell is 57 points back.

Last year after five races, Tyler Reddick was 64 points behind the cutoff, and he ended up making the playoffs by 30 points. And Kyle Larson was 57 points behind leader Hamlin, and he overtook Hamlin for the regular-season title.

Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola, both behind the cutline after five races a year ago, made the playoffs with wins.

The worry, of course, is that drivers will try to make bold moves and will make mistakes. It could be argued that's what happened to Hamlin at Atlanta, where he was pushing Larson to gain spots at the end of the stage, and Larson ended up spinning and collecting Hamlin in the process.

"Just frustrating, but we are running well," Hamlin said. "We are just finishing horrible. I’m just making some bad decisions. It’s easy in retrospect to say, ‘I should have done this,’ and, ‘I should have done that.’ But in the moment, you are trying to battle for some stage points there."

The key to getting back into playoff contention — beyond winning and the automatic bid that brings — is to earn stage points. Those can add up quickly, as NASCAR awards points to the top 10 in each of the first two stages. Hamlin has earned stage points in just three of 10 stages so far this year.

"We’ve got good grip, and I’m pushing him, and everything is going well, and then all of a sudden the car lifts up, and he’s gone," Hamlin said after the crash involving Larson. "[It’s] just split-second decision-making."

Just how bad has it been this year for Hamlin, who has yet to finish in the top 10 a year after leading the points for much of the regular season?

He was involved in accidents at Daytona and Phoenix, he accidentally broke the drivetrain at Las Vegas when he forgot which way to move the new shifter in the Next Gen car, all the Toyotas suffered heating issues at Fontana, and he had a speeding penalty on pit road while running second in Phoenix.

But while Hamlin can point to the "what-ifs" more than the rest of his teammates, he’s not alone. Busch and Truex were battling for the lead at Las Vegas when a late caution resulted in pit stops, and their four-tire stops left them behind a trio of Hendrick Motorsports cars on the final restart. Busch finished fourth in that race, the only JGR top-10 this year.

Busch, Hamlin and Bell have had an in-race penalty in every event this year. Bell had the most frustrating one, as NASCAR ruled that he passed below the inside line on the final lap at Atlanta, which turned a second-place finish into a 23rd-place finish as the last car on the lead lap.

Overall, JGR drivers have failed to finish seven times in the first five races.

But in an interview after he had one of the top speeds in practice at Atlanta, Bell said he wasn’t getting down.

"It has been easy to stay positive up to this point just because ... there has been a lot of high points," Bell said of having fast cars. "But the points position we are in now and finishing results haven’t shown that.

"It’s been easy to stay positive, but it’s definitely time to start getting some finishing results out of it."

Busch also seemed optimistic during the Atlanta prerace show, noting that the Toyotas as a whole seem to be just a tick behind.

"We kind of noticed coming out of the gate, testing, things like that — Chevy looked like they were really, really good. Ford guys also have been really good," Busch said.

"We’re probably the slowest manufacturer, but it’s not like much."

Kurt Busch of 23XI Racing, which has a technical alliance with JGR, is the highest-ranking Toyota, at fifth in the standings.

"We’ve got a little bit of stuff that we feel like is coming and some ideas which we haven’t necessarily got to yet," Busch said.

"So hopefully we can formulate some of those plans in the next few weeks. I feel like we’ll be right with the rest of them."

Those competing against JGR expect that it’s just a matter of time before the team regains its strength. JGR won nine races last year.

Still, it is strange to see a couple of the JGR drivers so low in the standings. Spire Motorsports, an organization that is still building and aims to finish in the top 25 in the standings, has one top-5 finish this year, just like JGR.

"I don’t think it is going to stay like that for long because you can’t keep a guy like Denny or Christopher Bell out of victory lane too long," said Spire driver Corey LaJoie, who was fifth at Atlanta. "Seeing the 11 car [of Hamlin] and the 20 car [of Bell] behind you in points five races into the year is a little bit unique, but we’re not racing those guys.

"Those guys will ultimately figure it out, [win a] race and punch their ticket to the playoffs."

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What to watch for

When it comes to road courses, it is always interesting to see if any drivers with significant road-course experience are in the Cup field.

AJ Allmendinger, who won the inaugural Cup race on the Indianapolis road course last year, is in the field, as he splits time with Daniel Hemric and Noah Gragson in the Kaulig Racing No. 16 Cup car.

Joey Hand is in the Rick Ware Racing No. 15 car. He accidentally wrecked Truex on the final lap at the Charlotte road course last year. The two talked about it the next day, Hand said.

Andy Lally, the 2011 Cup rookie of the year, is driving for Live Fast Motorsports, and Boris Said is driving an entry owned by Carl Long.

Kaz Grala is back in Cup for his first race with The Money Team Racing since the Daytona 500.

Thinking out loud

John Hunter Nemechek was a couple of laps down when he helped push Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Corey Heim to the win at Atlanta. Nemechek actually had to bail on teammate (and race leader at the time) Chandler Smith to push Heim to the win.

Nemechek thought the move would help KBM win the race and that Heim had the best chance in the lane he was in — and Nemechek was able to keep a driver from another team from making a move by both Heim and Smith.

Many viewed what Nemechek did as inappropriate, contending that a driver who has no chance to win and is multiple laps down should not be making moves at the finish. That driver is not going to get the free pass if the caution comes out and is not going to get a lap back through the wave-around because the leaders won’t pit.

Nemechek was caught in a bad situation. Don’t help your teammate win, and your car owner is angry. Help your teammate win, and every other team (and probably NASCAR) is angry.

Maybe this was a rare case and NASCAR can feel confident it won’t happen again or all that often. But — in the true spirit of thinking out loud — maybe NASCAR should make a rule for superspeedways.

How about this? Cars more than one lap down won’t be scored the final three laps; they are scored based on results when the leader has completed all but three laps in regulation. They can hold their spot in line for safety purposes (getting out of the pack could stall momentum and create havoc) but can’t make a move to another lane and should be encouraged to, when possible, drop to the back of the field and drive to the garage.

That would at least avoid any of these discussions and leave it in the hands of the drivers up front — not the hands of a driver trying to make the best of two bad decisions.

Social spotlight

They said it

"I’m missing the date. I’m going to go party with the boys." — Xfinity winner Ty Gibbs after the lengthy Atlanta race disrupted his postrace plans in Charlotte

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!