Joe Gibbs Racing Member Brutally Bashes the ‘Ridiculousness’ of NASCAR’s Untimely Call That Left Teams Panicking

The Grant Park 220 was a massive runaway success for NASCAR with over 4 million viewership on NBC and Peacock, making it NASCAR’s most-watched event in 6 years on NBC. However, NASCAR’s chaotic rain-soaked inaugural street course has also received major criticisms from the community for its indecisive move to shorten the race.

Following the race, Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and Cup Series leader, Martin Truex Jr‘s crew chief, James Small has come out of the woodwork to brutally expose NASCAR’s “ridiculous” decision to shorten the 100-lap race.

While Small’s comments revealed the organization’s lack of vision to organize such a massive event, his fellow JGR teammate and Denny Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gabehart questioned NASCAR’s “metric” to shorten the race by 25 laps.

Joe Gibbs’ crew chiefs go on the offensive as they detail how NASCAR’s sudden change of plans made their day miserable

NASCAR’s hasty decision to shorten the race at the last minute is garnering a lot of backlash from the community. Joe Gibbs‘ crew chiefs, James Small and Chris Gabehart, are the first on the scene to express their displeasure.

At first, the race was scheduled for 100 laps. But the weather playing spoilsport and the presence of cyclonic depression near the area forced NASCAR to delay the race by almost 90 minutes. The persistent downpour, consequently, forced the authorities to take up drastic measures to shorten the race by 25 laps before darkness set in.

James Small came out with harsh words, slamming the organization. “To me, it’s completely ridiculous! Like, if they have any plans of doing that, they should’ve told us, you know, a lot earlier, especially when they shorten them by 25 laps, or like any normal racing series, they probably should’ve told us before the start of the race.”

Small further explained his point, saying, “If everybody had known that they would’ve pitted on lap 31. So, with the rest of those guys, and you know, we thought maybe they’d shorten 5-10 laps. But when they did 25, it completely changed the race and just killed it for a lot of people. So, yeah hopefully that never happens again.”

Whereas Chris Gabehart of the #11 team questioned NASCAR’s “metric” of how they calculated the right number. He said, “I don’t know all the right details. First, how they determined the metric or do we have enough time to finish the race if we started? But that’s the rule, right? If you have started the race, you have to start it with a reasonable amount of time to finish it, that’s my understanding of the rule.”

Even with the rule intact, Gabehart still was puzzled about the decision, saying, “I don’t know how they calculated that.” 

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Even as he lauds NASCAR’s effort, Truex Jr’s crew chief also mentioned the logistics nightmare the event brought to the city.

“They could learn about logistics” – James Small points out the logistics nightmare the event bore on the city

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Small did not shy away from mentioning the stress it bore on the city despite arrangements being made months before. He said, “I thought they did a great job, you know. Walking the track the other day, it surprised me, you know. There’s things. They could learn about logistics and getting in and out all that definitely can be improved but overall think that the track was good. It was a good race.”

While the event itself was a major hit for the organization but as Small pointed out, there is a lot of room for improvement.

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