Joe Gibbs’ Masterplan to Boost His Playoff Driver Blows Up in His Face as Grandson Has the Last Laugh at Kansas

Kyle Busch, the man on a mission, is chasing his third championship this season with his new squad, Richard Childress Racing. When he jumped ship to RCR, skeptics wondered if he could adapt to a new team’s rhythm. But Busch has been firing on all cylinders, bagging three wins in the regular season and effortlessly securing his playoff spot.

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In fact, he’s so confident that it’s contagious! Busch’s enthusiasm is palpable, especially for Bristol, a track he has a soft spot for.

Joe Gibbs’ driver’s bad luck continues to woe the team amidst his consistent performances. Despite making the playoffs, Joe Gibbs Racing‘s #20 is still in the woods. While Kyle Larson conquered the Southern 500 for the first time and fellow Toyota driver Tyler Reddick got himself another win, JGR’s playoff contender is still in rough seas.

For the second consecutive time, despite the efforts of his boss and a solid run from the driver himself, the #20 driver’s ambitions to secure a playoff win have hit the wall.

Christopher Bell’s Dance with Bad Luck gets another sequel in Kansas as pit stop woes continue to haunt the #20 team

Good fortune hasn’t been the 28-year-old’s best friend, as Bell yet again choked up owing to his crew’s inadequacy. Going into the second playoff race at the Kansas Speedway, the #20 driver had speed, and that too in plenty. In fact, he qualified for the mile and a half by being the fastest, securing the pole position.

Despite the JGR Toyota’s blistering pace and the driver’s consistent performance, his pit crew failed him once again. Though the driver got his second pole in Kansas, a mechanical fault in the pit box of the #20 kept him from a smooth sail to the checkered flag. While Joe Gibbs, plotted an ingenious plan, swapping his grandson’s effective pit crew with the #20’s, a mechanical issue with the car’s jack ruined Bell’s Sunday race. NASCAR’s stacking pennies touched upon the #20’s sad state of affairs.

With the presenter and fellow Cup Series driver, Corey LaJoie joining the conversation his associates, Skip relayed the obvious. Corey said, “Tough week for the #20 car, it was keyed up for him to have just a great day in the pit stall in Kansas but you know between Hixie(crew member) having to go back and tighten the rear in their last stop where the jack handle leaked down and they lost the nut on the rear and hell they almost sent it on the track without a left rear on it.”

Not to add to Bell’s misery, Gibbs‘ decision to switch his grandson Ty Gibbs’ pit crew with Bell’s also backfired. Instead of getting him more competitive, the #20’s inefficient cost Bell valuable track positions whereas Ty Gibbs and his #54 team got away without any flaws, finishing 14th.

Reflecting on this Skip added, “This is where this kind of gets my motor turned a little bit the team that they replaced in the #54car  had a great race.” 

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Christopher Bell opens up about his crew’s back-to-back slips

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Qualifying with the fastest time and missing out on the win is one thing that no driver wants. Sadly for Christopher Bell, he had to live that reality not once but twice in back-to-back races. That too in such crucial and critical playoff rounds. Despite securing the pole position 7 times in his Cup Series career(Before Kansas) the finishes have been rarely successful.

This was actually pointed out but Austin Konenski who tweeted out the driver’s average race finish stats, saying, “Bell Has a 17.0 average finishing position in his career while starting 1st.” Though the driver missed a playoff win, he finished 8th. Bell then shared his thoughts on the post-race interview, accepting his fate as he held back his emotions carefully.

He said, “To walk out of here with an eighth is probably about what we had coming, so whenever you have green-white checkers like that you can get a pretty bad finish out of it easily. So I’m happy that it shook out the way it did. Ultimately, I was hoping to be a little bit more competitive today and thought we would be after qualifying in practice but good point to say you got some stage points, and we’ll move on to Bristol, and it’s going to be a dramatic one, that’s for sure.”

READ MORE: Christopher Bell Draws Heat Away From Joe Gibbs With 9-Word Confession

When asked about his team’s weakness and the solution to it, he simply said, “I don’t know there’s been plenty of races where we’ve had backside speed and not front-side speed so it is what it is. We haven’t put it all together yet but we’re still in the hunt so I’m thankful for that.”