Despite Recent Domination, Joe Gibbs Had His Heart in the Mouth After JGR’s Wonky Start to the Season

If it was Hendrick Motorsports and William Byron who opened the season with a stellar win at Daytona, gifting his boss a perfect 40th-anniversary gift, now as we get past Bristol, the Joe Gibbs Racing crew is turning up the heat and taking the fight to its competition. In fact, out of the past 5 races, it has two wins with Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin clinching the win at Phoenix and Bristol.

Moreover what makes the Toyota camp’s performance mind-blowing is the way they managed to dominate the field. For instance, all four of its drivers including the youngest of the lot, Ty Gibbs finished inside the top 10 with the veteran duo of Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr at the top in Bristol. Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR, the JGR boss, Joe Gibbs shared his thoughts, mentioning how concerned he was earlier before his drivers got off the mark, making a statement.

Joe Gibbs Racing boss gets real, revealing his thoughts as the action heads to COTA

After a couple of intermediate track races, the season’s first short track race went down at ‘The Last Great Colosseum.’ In a race that was highly contested, #11 driver and JGR veteran Denny Hamlin took the checkered flag, effectively capitalizing and timing his pit stops in a race that got the field by surprise after even the most accomplished drivers lost their way in the 500-mile feature.

Even champions like Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney couldn’t figure out a way as the tire wear got them in a rut but it did not faze the JGR squadron as all four Toyotas got home inside the top 10. In fact, JGR has led 613 of the last 812 laps at Phoenix and Bristol. Speaking his mind on NASCAR’s official radio channel, ‘The Coach’ shared his thoughts.

He said, “I think we’re off to… a good start. To be truthful though we started off with stricter play we were kind of off. And with our teams, I was kind of concerned. And, you know, we’ve kind of bounced back uh, the last three weeks really. And so I felt good about that and you feel good if you… if you see all four of your cars In our case that has speed and we’re performing.” 

“This would be a big deal for us,” Gibbs says ahead of the road race in COTA

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The 500-laps at Bristol saw the drivers of Joe Gibbs put on a show despite the tire issues that brought hell to Bristol. Hamlin emerged as the winner, with Martin Truex Jr. following him close on his heels in 2nd place. As for Ty Gibbs, he finished in the 9th spot after winning the first two stages, whereas Christopher Bell, the Phoenix winner, came in 10th. All in all, the JGR driver led a total of 383 laps that day, essentially showing the caliber of their new Toyota Camry XSE.

With an intermediate-track, short-track win, next in line is the 3.41-mile-long technical road course in Austin, Texas, that will test the best of the best. Reflecting on the upcoming race, the bossman said, “Now we’re going to the road race, the first road race. And I was Um, We were kind of all talking about it because we’ve been a restrictor plate. We’ve been to Vegas, a mile and a half intermediate, we’ve been to short track, and now we’re going to go to… a road race. So I think… This is a pretty good measuring stick. I lean on Larry. But… You probably get a pretty good feeling of your team somewhere we are after this weekend. So, this would be a big, this would be a big deal for us.” 

READ MORE: Denny Hamlin “In His Old Age” Traumatizes Joe Gibbs Racing Employee After Finally Embracing His Stigma

If Joe Gibbs Racing can repeat its massive success and show its consistency on the tight and technical course, then automatically they will get themselves into the championship conversation, becoming the best team in NASCAR in the current season.