Gibbs stable asserting itself in Cup playoffs

RICHMOND, VA. >> Two races into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, regular-season champion Kyle Larson is still the points leader, but the stable of contenders at Joe Gibbs Racing is making the most noise with victories in the last two races.

Martin Truex Jr. led a 1-2-3 parade of JGR Toyotas to the checkered flag on Sept. 11 at Richmond Raceway, and it wasn’t just at the finish line where they dominated. Not much past the race’s midpoint, they were running 1-2-3-4.

The return to winning ways is perfectly timed.

Truex’s teammate Denny Hamlin, who finished second at Richmond, ended a 31-race winless drought in the playoff opener at Darlington, and Truex’s victory, while his fourth of the season, came in his 16th start since the last one. It was during that winless spell that Larson really asserted himself, winning four times.

“Summer was tough,”

Truex said. “We had a lot of tough luck and a lot of crashes and got caught in the rain a few times. Some crazy things happened to us.”

Like Hamlin the week before, Truex seemed to feel like a return to victory lane was all but inevitable based on his overall performance, despite the drought.

“In general, I think we felt good coming into the playoffs. We got a lot of questions about how we felt about our team, and I was straight up saying that I felt good about it. We had speed, and our guys are doing a great job,” he said.

Larson, like Truex, needed to rally from the back. The Hendrick Motorsports star was sent to the back of the field before the race started for twice failing prerace inspection. Truex got sent to the back, too, on the opening lap when NASCAR determined that he took off before the pole sitter, Hamlin.

But Larson said expecting to win even before the penalty would have been unreasonable.