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After winning last season in the last 18 cup racing, was a key question going on this year, when Joe Gibbs Racing would win again.
Denny Hamlin’s back-to-back victories in Martinsville and Darlington give JGR five wins in the first eight races of this season.
The question now is whether Joe Gibbs Racing is the best team that is almost a third of the regular season.
“I don’t think we were (Martinsville, it) was dominance, but there were not many dominant Gibbs victories this year,” Hamlin said after his victory in Darlington. ‘(Martinsville) was one of the only one.
‘You see (Christopher) Bell at Phoenix dominated. I see it as we had twice that we had the best car, won the race. Then we had other things that just fall on our way. ‘
Hamlin led 274 of the last 275 rounds to win at Martinsville. Bell led a 105 of 312 rounds to win on Phoenix.
In the other three JGR victories this season, the team has led very few rounds. Bell only led the last round in Atlanta (JGR only led 2.3% of the race). Bell has eight rounds at Circuit of the Americas the only rounds that JGR led in the 95-Round event. Hamlin led only 10 of 297 rounds in his Darlington victory.
Even with JGR’s success, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron leads the points in the Sunday’s race on Bristol Motor Speedway. All four managers of Hendrick are in the top -10 in points: Byron (first), Chase Elliott (fourth), Kyle Larson (sixth) and Alex Bowman (10th).
A year ago, Byron won three of the first eight races. This year he has one win, but has more top five finishes (four this year to three last year) and this year led more round (354) compared to last year (149).
“I feel like we’re a stronger team,” Byron said after leading 243 rounds on his way to second place in Darlington this past weekend. “I don’t feel like we had this show in us last year. We won a few races (last year), but they were mostly utilizing at the end of the race, or had such things, or just had a good track position. “
While Hendrick has all four drivers in the top -10 in points, Joe Gibbs Racing has two of his four drivers in the top -10: Hamlin has spent the past two weeks of eighth to second vault with his wins and Bell is third.
23xi Racing has two of its drivers in the top -10: Tyler Reddick is fifth and Bubba Wallace is eighth.
Team Penske has two drivers in the top -10: Ryan Blaney is seventh and Joey Logano is ninth.
“It’s the same crowd every year,” Elliott said in Darlington this past weekend when he was asked about the point in season, he judges who is the strong title claim. “We don’t have to hit the bush. It’s going to be the same people who will be good for the last 15 weeks of the year.
“The people who are good at the moment are just going to get better. That’s just how it is. It will be the same crowd, as always when we get to it. ‘
