A junction of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway has left Denny Hamlin seeking assistance from his team’s leadership.
Hamlin and Christopher Bell found themselves hounding fellow JGR teammate Ty Gibbs in a fight for 11th during Stage 2 of Sunday’s Mobil 1 301, doggedly trying to work past the No. 54 Toyota with cars that seemed far faster. But after a heated contest between Bell and Gibbs resulted in contact, Hamlin was next in line to attempt a clean pass on Gibbs before that proved fruitless. The two charged into Turn 1 on Lap 110 and ultimately tangled as a nudge from Hamlin sent Gibbs spinning into the outside SAFER barrier, bringing an end to Gibbs’ day as Hamlin, Bell and Chase Briscoe all carried on to finish inside the top 12.
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The crux of the dilemma is that Hamlin, Bell and Briscoe are all postseason contenders while Gibbs missed the cut for the NASCAR Playoffs and cannot chase a Cup Series Championship this season. In a Monday recording of his “Actions Detrimental” podcast on Dirty Mo Media, Hamlin said that he believes the only way forward for all parties is if members of JGR’s leadership get involved and clarify their expectations for on-track etiquette throughout the postseason.
“What I want to happen is leadership (to) step in and tell us, what do you want us to do?” Hamlin said. “If you want us all to just race each other cut-throat, no matter what your position is in the stature of the standings, we can definitely do that. Like I expect myself and the 19 (Briscoe) and the 20 (Bell) to race really, really hard because we’re all battling each other to get above this cutline or maintain our status above the cutline. If I get eliminated or the 19 gets eliminated or the 20 gets eliminated, and then we’ve established this ‘no rules — you guys just do whatever you wanna do,’ none of us are going to win.”
Hamlin said that in years past, team owner Joe Gibbs has addressed situations like this before, setting Hamlin’s expectations for how they race each other moving forward.
“He has had this conversation multiple times with everyone in the room, but I think it probably needs to be said again,” Hamlin said. “And so what I’ve heard is that if you’re a non-playoff car, any break that you can cut your teammates, please do.”
Adding to the unusual level of complexity in this scenario, though, are family ties. Joe Gibbs is the grandfather of Ty Gibbs, while Ty’s mother, Heather Gibbs, also serves as a team co-owner. But with such high stakes, Hamlin believes intervention from leaders within the company may be key to preserving JGR’s championship hopes for another six weeks.
In a post-race interview Sunday, Joe Gibbs said he believed it would be best if the drivers handled the fallout of the situation between themselves. Hamlin believes a conversation with Ty Gibbs wouldn’t solve the problem because “I don’t think we’re on the same page.”
“The challenge is that I think me and Ty are going to have different opinions,” Hamlin said. “Therefore, you need leadership to step in and say, ‘Well, this is how we want it done.’ And then we will play by those rules. Whatever those rules are, I will play by those rules. But I have been told in the past, if you’re not in it, you do everything you can to help your teammates that are in.”
Hamlin reiterated he welcomes hard racing and agrees “everyone should race to win the race.” But fighting for 11th place in Stage 2 with a teammate “with nothing to gain” frustrated the veteran Hamlin.
“Me, the 20, the 19 — we’re all battling and scratching and clawing to try to get some stage points, which is going to be life or death for us,” Hamlin said. “It’s our air that we need to move on (in the playoffs). I felt as though (I was) a little bit wronged in the sense of my teammate out of the playoffs should not be the hardest car on the track to pass. I mean, for God’s sake, Ross Chastain let me by. If there’s anyone that probably — he’s on the cutline. But even in the first stage, I pressured him and pressured him, and more than likely, what he thought was ‘I’m not going to hold him up for this entire 60-lap run. I might as well just get back in line, try to keep it from someone else joining this party and passing me along with you.’
“This is the race-craft that I feel like is missing — that understanding (of) the situation. And certainly I felt as though this thing is hard enough to win anyway. But if you’re gonna have to race your teammates harder than anyone on the race track, then this will be really, really tough for any one of us to win.”
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Hamlin expressed that Gibbs’ aggressive aero-blocking — blocking the air from Hamlin’s car and creating unfavorable driving conditions for Hamlin — ultimately led to their collision in Turn 1. Hamlin had no intention of spinning out his teammate, he said, but added he was looking to move Gibbs out of the lane Hamlin wanted.
“Well, it was twofold because I was pretty much there into Turn 1, and then he moved down to the middle lane to cut the nose off to make me get really (tight),” Hamlin said. “If you cut someone’s nose, especially if they’re running really close to you, it’ll make their car kind of lift up and take off. So I think he was just trying to cross my nose to make me lose air just to further aero-block me. And I was so close to him that I’m like, ‘Hell no. You’re not gonna do that.’ So yeah, I tried to shove him up to the next lane to get my position, and I unfortunately spun him out.”
Hamlin recorded Monday’s episode ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s afternoon competition meeting, so no further discussions had yet commenced between Hamlin and Ty Gibbs. But as of Monday morning, Hamlin “just didn’t understand where the mindset was there” from Gibbs.
“It’s just too difficult to win naturally, much less if we’re going have the ‘everyone just races for themselves and it doesn’t matter whether you’re racing for a championship or not,\"” Hamlin said. “And from my standpoint, I would think that Ty would want one of us to win a championship. His name’s on the building.”
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