Ambitious goal at Gibbs: Four drivers in finale
Scenario would make interesting scramble for championship
ALA. It’s a small sample size, but there have yet to be a pair of teammates in the NASCAR championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
We’re not sure how that would work or what the dynamics would be like — teams openly share setup information and meet to discuss how their cars are handling — but it could add another layer of drama to the Chase for the Sprint Cup finale.
What if three teammates were among the final four drivers at Homestead? What about four?
It’s unlikely Joe Gibbs Racing would sweep all four spots, but it’s certainly possible. And that’s going to make Round 3 of the Chase very interesting.
Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards are championship contenders. Each has won multiple races this season and has experience making deep playoff runs. It wouldn’t be a huge shock if any of them won the title, based on how Toyota has performed overall.
There might not be room for all of them, and that’s where it gets intriguing.
Among the competition the JGR quartet will face are two teammates — Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch from Stewart-Haas Racing — who ended Round 2 with a confrontation on pit road. It was perhaps a miscommunication that will be quickly sorted out, but we don’t regularly see teammates feud publicly.
The most memorable example came in 2007, when then-Roush Fenway Racing teammates Edwards and Kenseth had a spat after the Martinsville Speedway Chase race. Edwards confronted Kenseth and then cocked his fist to throw a punch before walking away.
It’s hard to imagine any of the JGR teammates getting into a physical confrontation, but some anger is certainly possible. As much as the drivers want the team to succeed — and Edwards says he thinks JGR can get all four in the championship race — they’re likely to be racing hard for the same spots.
Harvick is going to be tough to keep out of the final four. So is Jimmie Johnson. Don’t dismiss Joey Logano’s or Kurt Busch’s chances, either.
So what if that leaves the JGR teammates racing for two spots, say at Phoenix International Raceway? If given the chance, they’d most certainly rough each other up for the win (as Edwards did to 2015 champ Kyle Busch this year at Richmond International Raceway), so you’d have to figure the same extends for a chance to advance in the Chase.
Joe Gibbs, expert soother of athlete egos, might have his hands full in the next few weeks. And that starts with Martinsville, where all of his cars are capable of running up front and running into one another.
This is where the Chase gets fun. There’s no more laying back or being conservative, because there might be only one spot available on points for the final round. Yes, the first two rounds were more about avoiding bad finishes than getting good ones; Round 3 seems to be the opposite.
JGR is in a prime position after working together Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway to get all four cars through. But now the pressure goes up a few more notches, and the teammates’ friendliness might get additional tension.
It’s one of those cases where it won’t be enjoyable for them, but viewers — even those who don’t like the Toyota teammates — should be entertained.