Being one of the winningest car manufacturers this season, Toyota has little to worry about. The OEM has soared to Victory Lane seven times already across the NASCAR Cup Series races. And Joe Gibbs Racing is its poster team. However, given an unfortunate late-race mishap at Pocono Raceway, maybe the stellar Cup team has something to worry about.

This slip-up marks the third time this season Joe Gibbs‘ fold has faced a similar situation. JGR fields some of the best drivers of NASCAR’s premier series. So unless this pressing problem is solved soon, wins may slip away due to trivial lapses.

Time to pay attention, Joe Gibbs

Since the Sonoma race this year, engine failures have been plaguing Toyota and JGR. Most recently, Joe Gibbs’ grandson also got caught up in the technical mess. At the Great American Getaway 400 race, Ty Gibbs had the strongest position initially. He started from the pole and led for two laps before his No. 54 Toyota Camry began acting up. He fell back into the field until the last few laps. But his final speed was hampered due to an engine failure.

On lap 132, plumes of smoke and fluid emitted from the car’s tailpipes. This prompted the 21-year-old driver to slow down on the Long Pond Straightaway for the final time. This incident ejected Ty Gibbs from the Pocono race due to a mechanical failure. This echoes what Denny Hamlin faced in Sonoma and Christopher Bell in World Wide Technology Raceway.

Yet Joe Gibbs finds himself ignoring the elephant in the room. With the playoff races fast approaching, this crucial shortcoming could mean volumes for the drivers. NASCAR journalist Toby Christie pointed out as such on X: “That engine failure for Ty Gibbs marks at least the third issue for engines in Joe Gibbs Racing cars over the last seven races. Christopher Bell had an engine issue in the closing laps at Gateway, which ended his bid to win there, and Hamlin blew an engine on Lap 2 at Sonoma.”

The Sonoma race was barely 2 laps old when Denny Hamlin blew his No. 11 Toyota’s engine. This glaring problem could impact Hamlin’s hopes to finally get a championship title. Christopher Bell’s dilemma was far more heartbreaking – he dominated the Gateway race, eyeing another trophy for the season. But a motor issue spoiled his hopes in the closing laps. Ryan Blaney’s fuel ran out, and Austin Cindric became the Lucky Dog on Track winner.

Now with Ty Gibbs’ misery, it may be high time for Joe Gibbs to take heed of the problem. However, the story of engine failures in the JGR team is an old one.

Inconsistency puzzled a JGR executive

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It may be hard to imagine that the same type of issue would plague one team for over a decade. But that seems to be the case for Joe Gibbs Racing. Back in 2011, two instances of engine issues plagued the team on a single weekend at Auto Club Speedway. A valve leakage was discovered on past JGR driver Joey Logano’s Toyota. Then Denny Hamlin’s engine failed 105 laps into the race due to an unrelated value train issue.

Jimmy Makar, past Senior VP of racing operations at JGR, said the unrelated nature of the issues concerned him more. “Probably the bigger issue is for the most part they are non-related. That makes things harder to figure out. If you had the same thing happening over and over again you could focus on it.”

But then there was inconsistency as well – contrary to Logano and Hamlin’s fortunes, Kyle Busch did not face any issue in California. He led a race-high 151 laps before Kevin Harvick beat him for the win. Makar pointed out this puzzling state of affairs. “That’s the weird thing about it. You come with three engines, one blows up, one has other issues in practice and one comes back with no problems whatsoever. How do you make rhyme or reason with that? I wish it was an easy thing finding out what it is.”

Evidently, the same problem has continued over the years and into 2024. Joe Gibbs really needs to handle the situation on a war footing, considering Denny Hamlin’s fast-approaching retirement age and dwindling Championship hopes.