New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
RACE TO FINISH
Joe Gibbs Racing solidifies dominance as NASCAR championship field set
There is no clear favorite for this year’s NASCAR championship, but Joe Gibbs Racing has the clear edge on the competition.
The Toyota flagship team put its entire fourcar lineup into the 16-driver field with Kyle Busch leading the way as the regular-season champion. Teammates Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. are right behind him in the standings and Erik Jones completes the quartet at 11th in points.
Busch is in the best position because of his four victories and 30 playoff points earned. He goes into the 10-race playoff series that begins Sunday at Las Vegas with a 15-point lead over Hamlin and a 45-point advantage over Ryan Newman, the last driver to make the playoff field.
Four drivers will be dropped from the field after each three-race series, setting up a winner-take-all finale among the final four drivers Nov. 17 in Florida at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“We have certainly worked hard throughout the regular season to get this playoff point advantage that we have right now,” Busch said. “It would be nice to not have to rely on those points, but to be able to win some races here and close out the season strong and get to Homestead and race for a championship.”
JGR will be challenged by the Team Penske contingent as well as Kevin Harvick from Stewart-Haas Racing. Penske boasts reigning series champion Joey Logano, as well as former series champion Brad Keselowski, and the duo combined for five victories so far this year.
Harvick, meanwhile, had a slower start to the season but readied for the playoffs with an emphatic victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was Harvick’s third victory in what’s been a bit of a down year for SHR. The team had all four of its drivers advance to the third round of last year’s playoffs, but Daniel Suarez did not make the cut and Clint Bowyer barely made the field.
“I think we’ve definitely made some strides in getting closer to where we want to be,” Harvick said. “I think we still have some things that we have to work on at certain styles of racetracks. But this is survive and advance, and you don’t necessarily have to have the fastest car ... it’s a one week at a time grind.”
HENDRICK REPRESENTED
Rick Hendrick vowed his team will be much improved this season and he delivered with three Hendrick Motorsports cars in the playoffs. Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman are returning to the postseason, while William Byron is racing for a championship for the first time. Bowman earned his spot with a victory this season, while Byron made it in on points. Elliott, with two wins this season, is likely the strongest title contender of the Hendrick group and he narrowly missed the championship round last season.
“I have confidence that we can have good cars,” Elliott said. “We’ve just got to get going and find a little consistency and just get things started off, uneventfully, would be great.”
EVERY POINT MATTERED
Ryan Newman was the last driver to make the playoff field, and did it in his first season with Roush Fenway Racing. Although he needed a strong finish at Indianapolis to cement his spot in the postseason, he proved that the way he raced last month at Bristol Motor Speedway was the right move for him: Newman did not get out of the way of leader Matt DiBenedetto, who was trying to win his first career Cup race after learning he was losing his job next season. Fans were angry with Newman, whose decision partly cost DiBenedetto a shot at victory lane. But Newman showed that his points-collecting strategy is what is best for his success. Newman did the same thing in 2014 when he used math to advance to the final four and race for the championship. He finished second in the standings that year. His Roush team is likely not strong enough for Newman to advance through all three rounds of the playoffs, but Newman has shown time and time again he will go down fighting.
WHERE IS JIMMIE JOHNSON?
For the first time since NASCAR moved to a playoff format in 2004, the seven-time series champion failed to make the field. It’s a stunning upset for Johnson and his 15-year streak of racing for the title. During that time, he won a title in each version of the evolving format and 29 of 83 postseason races. But Johnson is in a rebuilding year, has had two crew chief changes this season and is winless for nearly two years. He needed a miracle in the regular season finale at Indianapolis to even squeeze his way into the playoffs, and his race ended in a wreck on a restart.
“It’s really disappointing,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, we had a bad 25 races that led
to the position we’re in.”