Mixed results: Joe Gibbs Racing steps up performance, but is it enough?
On the face of it, Sunday's MyAFibStory.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway was a pretty good outing for Joe Gibbs Racing, which saw drivers Denny Hamlin (sixth), Kyle Busch (seventh) and Matt Kenseth (10th) all finish safely in the top 10.
If the trio has similar results this coming weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and again in two weeks at Dover International Speedway, all three JGR drivers should easily be among the 12 drivers who will advance into the Contender Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
But even if they do, can the JGR Toyotas offer legitimate competition for the two best teams in the sport right now, Team Penske, which has won eight races this year, including three of the last four, and Hendrick Motorsports, winners of 10 races so far in 2014?
Surprisingly, perhaps, the three had very different takes on the race. Hamlin, who at one point thought he was going to lose an engine, was happy to have a good points day, especially with a handful of other Chase drivers running into problems.
"This is what you need to do early on," said Hamlin. "You're going to have to run top-five pretty consistently towards the end of the Chase, but right now we're doing what we need to do."
The finish moved Hamlin up to sixth in points, 18 markers behind Chicagoland winner Brad Keselowski of Team Penske. More importantly, Hamlin is 12 points ahead of 13th place, the first spot that won't advance to the next round after Dover.
Busch's day was sort of a good news-bad news deal. Sunday marked the sixth consecutive race where he finished better than he had the race before, and he started on the pole. That said, he was disappointed to have not ended the day in a better position but knew it could have been much worse.
"The more the day went, the rubber got down and farther back we got in traffic and we kept getting hurt by each situation," said Busch. "We have to make better adjustments. I feel like we are kind of getting ourselves off base sometimes during the race, but we always seem to rally back, but the rally back is always too late. Good job by the guys and to end up seventh for a shoulda-coulda-woulda-been 16th is good."
As for Kenseth, last year's championship runner-up, he was flat unhappy.
"We just weren't very good today," Kenseth said after Sunday's race. "... Just a struggle, we showed a lot of speed most of the weekend but just could never get it today where I wanted it to be."
As for his championship aspirations, Kenseth added, "I haven't even thought about it. I'm just one race at a time. I was really disappointed in the way we ran today, just more of that on my mind and trying to figure that out and how we can be better at the next race next week."
Although the Chase is only one round in, this much is clear: The Penske Fords are the fastest cars right now, with the Hendrick Chevrolets in close proximity. Which means JGR and Toyota still have a way to go if they want to become relevant in the championship discussion.
VIDEO: MyAFibStory.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway highlights
