Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr.'s seasons in peril following Homestead
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Joe Gibbs has worked in competitive sports for decades, so he knows all a team needs is a chance to have hope.
So when he sees two of his NASCAR Cup Series championship favorites now with their backs against the wall going into the elimination race next Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, he has hope.
Regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. and regular-season runner-up Denny Hamlin sit 17 points behind the current cutoff heading into Martinsville. Two spots remain to be among the Championship 4. Truex and Hamlin can advance either with a win or by making up the deficit.
Joe Gibbs Racing knows it will have at least one driver in the Championship 4 thanks to Christopher Bell's victory on Sunday. He might be the only one to advance among the three JGR drivers who made it to the Round of 8.
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"It's hard to get in the Final 4, I'll tell you that," Gibbs said. "I don't think anything's a given. Certainly the 19 [of Truex], all they did in the regular season as good as they are, but we've had real disappointments with everything that's happened.
"The 11 [of Hamlin] has been pretty consistent up until the last couple of weeks. I think you're looking at it, and the great thing is we have three cars for our team that have a chance. We still got a chance. That's the way we look at it. We're going to Martinsville, it's going to be a classic I'm sure. But we do have a chance when we go there with both Denny and Martin."
Making it in on points is not impossible. William Byron is in a solid position to get a spot on points as he sits 20 points ahead of Ryan Blaney and then 30 points ahead of Tyler Reddick, currently the first driver who would miss on points. Reddick is 10 points behind Blaney. Chris Buescher is 43 points behind and in a virtual must-win situation.
Will Denny Hamlin and/or Martin Truex Jr. make the Championship 4?
Rallying from 17 points seems difficult, although Blaney entered Homestead at 17 points back and now sits 10 points above the cutoff. But he needed both Truex and Hamlin to finish 29th and 30th, as Truex had an engine expire and Hamlin had a mechanical failure that sent him into the wall.
When Hamlin dropped out of the race, he did not know his specific points situation, but he knew it wasn't good.
"It's disappointing, but that's the format right?" Hamlin said. "You know that if you have one bad race, especially in the Round of 8, you're cooked and what you did for the first 35 races just doesn't matter.
"And so me and Truex look like we'll probably be out? I don't know. Moving on."
Hamlin has five career wins at Martinsville and led 203 laps in the fall race last year before finishing fifth. He led 103 laps the year prior and finished 24th (but still made the Championship 4).
"If I have to win, we're going to try and win," Hamlin said. "That's what we go to every racetrack trying to do. And if our season ends because of this mechanical, then it ends and that's just part of it.
"I assume I just have got to go win. We were in this situation last year and we dominated the race. Really for the last two years in a row, we've dominated the fall race, so we'll just go there with the same mentality I always do."
Denny Hamlin on Martinsville strategy: "We're gonna try to win"
Truex has three victories and 10 career top-5 finishes at Martinsville.
"I know you said 17 down, but anything can happen," Bell said about his teammates. "Martinsville was Denny Hamlin 101 for a while. And Martin, I'm pretty sure he won ... a couple back-to-back at Martinsville.
"They're not out of it by any means."
No, they're not out, but they're certainly frustrated. They both saw their Homestead races end at about the same time as Hamlin brought his damaged car to the garage and Truex parked his car on pit road, got out and quickly left the track.
"Martin qualified on the pole — I thought we had a chance with that car," Gibbs said. "A series of circumstances, then lose the motor."
As is typical this time of year, those still alive in the playoffs get asked about what a championship would mean. For Truex, the 2017 Cup champion, it would not only mean a space in history as a multi-time champion but also a big jump from a year ago when he went winless and didn't make the playoffs. Truex already has committed to at least one more season at JGR.
"It'd make me and the entire team very happy," Truex said Saturday about winning another title. "[It'd] put a stamp on all of the hard work we've put in since the start of the Next Gen car last year.
"We've had a lot of good runs and wins with the group, but this is the reason we do what we do. Winning it all again would be everything that would make me feel better about doing another season."
A day later, he left the track probably just hoping to make it to the Championship 4. It won't be easy.
"Those two guys are veteran guys," Gibbs said. "It's just amazing sometimes what can happen in this sport.
"To have the 19 do what it did in the regular season, you don't luck out on that. That was 26 weeks, won it by a bunch. It shows you what can happen in sports. It's the greatest reality show in the world because we don't know."
Thinking Out Loud
NASCAR has set its truck series championship field as it skips Martinsville with that series before going to Phoenix.
Next year, it won't be that way as Martinsville has returned as the elimination race for trucks to determine the Championship 4. The trucks will join Xfinity and Cup at Martinsville for the race weekend.
That's a solid move as the trucks always put on a good show at Martinsville.
While there could be something to be said about crowning a truck champion at Homestead, an Xfinity champion at Martinsville and then a Cup champion at Phoenix — giving each series its own championship weekend focus — NASCAR doesn't appear willing to go that route.
So if NASCAR is going to finish all three series the same weekend, it makes sense to have all three "final fours" decided the weekend prior to build momentum into the championship race.
In The News
--After battling weather and then darkness last year, NASCAR has shortened the length of the Chicago street race for its second visit. The Cup race was shortened from a scheduled 100 laps to 75 for 2024 — NASCAR got in 78 laps in the race this year before darkness ended the day. The Xfinity race was reduced from 55 scheduled laps to 50. This year the race was shortened to 25.
--Kaulig Racing announced that Chandler Smith would not return to the team's Xfinity Series program next season. Smith is a candidate to drive an Xfinity car at Joe Gibbs Racing next year.
--The Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4 is set: Corey Heim, Carson Hocevar, Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes. Zane Smith, who did not advance, was later disqualified for a violation of windshield brace rules. The team has not determined whether it will appeal, but it wouldn't make a difference as far as who will compete for the title Nov. 3 at Phoenix.
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Stat of the Day
Christopher Bell had an average running position of 11.1 and still won at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
They Said It
"This is better than a dream come true." —Christopher Bell after winning Sunday to reach the Championship 4
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
