Joe Gibbs Racing – Unluckiest Team in NASCAR
March 26, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
They’ve got the two drivers with the most laps led this year in the 2008 Sprint Cup Series.. They won the first two Nationwide Series races, and have also won a Sprint Cup race. They also lead the Sprint Cup Series points standings. So, why does it seem like Joe Gibbs Racing is the unluckiest team in NASCAR?
Let’s recap their season so far, and we’ll start with the Nationwide Series. Tony Stewart won the first two Nationwide Series races of the year with Kyle Busch finishing both races right behind him. Everything looked solid heading into Las Vegas, but then disaster struck when both drivers fell victim to accidents. They left Vegas still number 1 and 2 in points, but that was Tony’s last Nationwide appearance to date. The following week in Atlanta, Busch cut a tire down late in the race after dominating the race, and limped home in 24th. At Bristol, Busch collided with a spinning Martin Truex Jr. just 12 laps into the race, giving him the rest of the day off. Then, in Nashville, Busch once again led the most laps, but spun out after losing control of his car and finished the race two laps down. He now sits 11th in driver points, 190 points out of the lead.
Switch over the Sprint Cup Series, and at first glance, all appears to be well. Kyle Busch leads the standings with a 30-point lead, Stewart’s in 7th, and Denny Hamlin has climbed up to 15th. All is hunky dory, right? Not when you consider the fact that based on the domination that the JGR cars have had in these first five races, they should be racking up victories left and right and competing amongst themselves for the points lead.
At the Daytona 500, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch were the class of the field for the majority of the day. As the laps boiled down, Stewart led the field to the white flag, only to be passed by Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch at the end, leaving Stewart and Kyle Busch to finish 3rd and 4th. Hamlin led some laps as well, but faltered throughout the day and finished in 17th. The team was solid at California, but not much of a factor to win the race. At Vegas, both Stewart and Busch looked strong, but Stewart absolutely collided with the outside wall after a tire went down, and for whatever reason, Busch’s car just faded in the latter stages of the race to finish in 11th despite looking like he might be the car to be beat in the first segments of the race. The highlight of the season came for the team the following week at Atlanta when Busch and Stewart finished 1-2 with Hamlin coming in 15th, so nothing to gripe about there. But, then it looked like back-to-back victories were in the works for JGR at Bristol. The three Gibbs cars were undoubtedly the class of the field all day long, but Busch lost the handling of the car while leading the race, and fell two laps down. Still, Hamlin and Stewart were first and second with just two laps left in the race, but a collision with Harvick sent the race into overtime and Stewart back to 14th. On the final restart, Hamlin’s fuel pickup faltered, and he dropped back to sixth place.
Upon further examination of Hamlin’s fuel pickup, the problem was diagnosed as being directly linked to the Joe Gibbs fuel cells, which are actually different than the ones run by many teams based on the positioning of the fuel pickup. The incident now has the Gibbs R&D department examining their parts and looking into alternatives.
So, now it appears that not only does Joe Gibbs Racing not have lady luck willing to cooperate with them, but they may also have technical problems looming out there for some of their cars. It shouldn’t be too surprising for the fans to see occasional mechanical failures within JGR due to the fact that they just made the jump to Toyota this year and haven’t had ample time to iron out every little kink in their armor, but still – there was just something unsettling about the way everything turned from gold to copper on them at Bristol. What the Gibbs camp does have going for them, though, is their driver lineup, which many people feel may be the best overall lineup that NASCAR has to offer. Tony Stewart is arguably the best all-around driver in all of racing. Kyle Busch has been highly regarded as the hottest driver in 2008. And, Denny Hamlin has established himself as a very impressive up and comer, and undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. They’ve proven their abilities already throughout the course of 2008 by being able to get their cars out in front of the rest of the pack whenever their cars have allowed them to, but the problem for them is that the racing gods very seldom grant the checkered flag to the best car in the field.
“DYN Imposes” … this week, Do You Nascar also asks you …
1) Is Joe Gibbs Racing the most dominant force on the track – as the laps led statistics would suggest?
2) Will any of the JGR drivers be legitimately competing for the Cup Championship when the series heads into Homestead?
3) How many races will JGR win in 2008?
4) Does JGR have the best driver lineup in NASCAR?
1.there tough and as of right now they probaly have the cars figured out didn’t a big effort for the switch to toyota as was first thought they are pretty dominant so far seems like they have alot of pony’s under the hood.
2.I would be suprised to have all three of them fighting it out at the end with three of the hendrick boys.
3.I’ll say maybe six.
4.It would be hard to argue that fact stewart is a 2 time champ. Busch will be a champion probaly more than once. Hamlin has proven he could drive with the big boys. But there a couple other teams that are pretty stout hendrick and childress both have three good drivers on there team. With hendrick drivers having i think six championship between them. I’ll let you call that one.
1 – Like Roc said, they’re tough right now, but it’s hard to call them the dominant team in the sport right now until we see how everything plays out with them running the Camry’s a little longer in the year.
2 – I think all three will make the Chase, but by the time we reach race #36, Hamlin will be around 11th or 12th, Busch will be around 5th or 6th, and Stewart will be top three making a charge twoard his third cup title!
3 – Five.
4 – Nope. Gotta say Hendrick does.
1. Not by a long shot. Roush all the way!
2. Stewart might be, but thats about it. Kyle Busch is still way too much of a wild child.
3. Probably 3 or 4.
4. No way. Roush again!
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