Showing posts with label Joe Gibbs Racing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Gibbs Racing. Show all posts
Jimmir Johnson Seven Trophies

Seven. Times.
Richard Petty. Dale Earnhardt. Jimmie Johnson. The Hendrick driver joined elite company on Sunday, as he claimed a historic seventh Cup Championship - joining the two Hall of Famers as the only drivers to accomplish such a feat. "I was driving the same race cars for the same team as Jimmie and getting beat by Jimmie," said former teammate Jeff Gordon. "To me, he’s the best I’ve ever seen." It didn't come easy for Johnson, who worked his way up from the back of the field before claiming the lead during the final overtime restart in NASCAR's thrilling season finale. "Just beyond words," said Johnson.  "Just didn't think the race was unfolding for us like we needed to do to be the champs, but we just kept our heads in the game."

Joe Gibbs Racing

Twelve wins, 3,769 laps led, four Chase drivers, and two in the Championship 4. Yes it was Jimmie Johnson hoisting the Sprint Cup trophy on Sunday night, but 2016 could be remembered as the year Joe Gibbs Racing established itself as a premier team in NASCAR. Their historic season propelled Toyota to their first ever manufacturer's title in the Cup series, snapping Chevrolet's 13-year winning streak. If you throw in the accomplishments of alliance member Martin Truex Jr. (another four wins and season-high 1,809 laps led), his future teammate Erik Jones, and an XFINITY Series Champion in Daniel Suarez - what team has a brighter future?

Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson

Speaking of futures, 2016 proved that NASCAR has a promising one. The 2016 Chase field saw four newbies all under the age of 27. Rookies Chase Elliott (20) and Chris Buescher (24) joined Austin Dillon (26) and Kyle Larson (24) as first-time Chase competitors, with Elliott advancing to the Round of 12 and Larson having arguably the best car at the Championship race in Homestead. Rookie Ryan Blaney (22) had a strong campaign with nine Top-10 finishes, while Team Penske's Joey Logano (26), has established himself as one of the sport's most dangerous drivers with nine wins over the past two years and a Championship 4 run in 2016. Furniture Row Racing signed Erik Jones (20) to a full-time Cup ride in 2017, and his XFINITY Series teammate Daniel Suarez (24) took home the XFINITY Series Championship. Watch out next year, folks, these youngsters mean business.  

2017 and beyond

This season was definitely one for the books, punctuated by Denny Hamlin's historic start at the Daytona 500 and Jimmie Johnson's historic finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway. And while the sun has barely set on the 2016 season, already the NASCAR landscape is beginning to change. What will the Cup Series look like without Tony Stewart? How will his team, Stewart-Haas Racing, perform with their transition to Ford? Will 2016 go down as a career year for Joe Gibbs Racing - or just the beginning of something more? After a 12-year run with the sport, who will replace Sprint as the Cup Series sponsor? We won't have to wait long to find out - the 2017 Daytona 500 is just 95 days away.
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Joey Logano

Although things were much different this time last year for the No. 22, Joey Logano still managed to find himself in a familiar place on Sunday - Talladega Victory Lane. Logano dominated the Round of 12 in 2015, sweeping all three races and establishing himself as the front-runner for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Fast forward 12 months and the No. 22 was battling to simply advance. Logano managed to surge ahead on the Lap 191 restart and pull out an overtime win to repeat as the Hellmann's 500 champion. “I feel good,” he said after the race. “...it was going to be tough after what happened in Charlotte, so to be able to recover and win in a clutch moment like this to move us on feels really, really good.”

Joe Gibbs Racing

While their regular season dominance may not have yet shown itself in the Chase, Joe Gibbs Racing's quartet of Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, and Matt Kenseth still found a way to show why they're the team to beat. All four drivers have advanced to the next round of the Chase, without a single Chase win between them, thanks to some cautious race tactics at Talladega. “It’s a playoff and you’ve got to say what is smart and so you certainly don’t want to make a big mistakes of some kind and cost your sponsor and everybody that’s wrapped into this,” said team owner Joe Gibbs about the team's defensive strategy.

XFINITY Series Changes

Early today, NASCAR announced rules that will limit how many XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series races full-time Sprint Cup drivers can race in 2017. Drivers with more than five years of full-time Cup experience will be limited to maximum of 10 XFINITY and seven Camping World Truck Series contests beginning in 2017. Additionally, those drivers will also be held from competing in both Series' finales at Homestead-Miami Speedway and any XFINITY Dash for Cash races. “The updated guidelines will elevate the stature of our future stars, while also providing them the opportunity to compete against the best in professional motorsports,” said NASCAR Senior VP of Racing Operations Jim Cassidy.

Martinsville

NASCAR Returns to the Commonwealth
The eight drivers who survived Talladega with championship dreams intact now turn their attention to Martinsville and the only short track in the Chase. Could this be where one of the JGR Toyotas, who've led 1,545 of the 3,307 laps raced on short tracks this year, captures its first playoff win? Hometown Hamlin was the last one to visit Victory Lane, winning the regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway, and has five wins at the half-mile track. Teammate Kyle Busch also won at Martinsville in April, but it's Hendrick's Jimmie Johnson who has seen the most success in Southwest Virginia (eight wins, 23 top-10's in 29 races).
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Ah, the final stretch. Only three races remain before the regular season finale at Richmond, and the Chase bubble grows smaller and smaller as we approach the Federated Auto Parts 400. Less than 20 points separate Kyle Larson (No. 15) from Ryan Blaney (No. 18) in the standings, while Chris Buescher needs to gain one spot in the standings for his win at Pocono to vault him into the Chase. Click the link to look at five drivers whose Chase Bubble is at risk of popping.


A Nice Problem to Have
Furniture Row Racing made headlines a couple weeks ago when they announced their addition of Erik Jones to the Sprint Cup lineup on a one-year deal in 2017, marking the first time the team has fielded more than a single driver (currently home to Martin Truex Jr.). Jones is the reigning NCWTS Champ and sits fourth in the XFINITY Series standing as a rookie for Joe Gibbs Racing. His three wins on the year tops all other XFINITY Series regulars, so it won't come as a surprise that Coach Gibbs already has his eye on a spot for the talented young driver. Also lurking in the wings is Daniel Suarez - who sits second in XFINITY points in his second season in the series. The future is undoubtedly bright for the JGR team, but so is the present. Kyle Busch (four wins), Carl Edwards (two wins), Matt Kenseth (two wins) and Denny Hamlin (two wins) are all locked into the Chase while sitting within the top nine in points. What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? We can't wait to find out.


Have we mentioned there's only four races left in the NASCAR regular season? And with Bristol and Richmond on the calendar, half of the remaining races will be battled on short tracks. As we head into this weekend's Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, FOX Sport's
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Denny Hamlin

With his victory in the Cheez-It 355 on Sunday, Hamlin picked up his second trip to Gatorade Victory Lane this season and the first road course win of his 12-year career. Sitting P1 after the race was red-flagged with five laps remaining, the Joe Gibbs driver managed to stave off a run for Martin Truex Jr to earn the checkered flag despite driving through the some of the worst pain he'd ever felt. “We worked on (my back) all day to try to make it better. We really didn’t make it much better,” said Hamlin. “If it was Friday or Saturday, no question I wouldn’t have turned one lap today. This was by far the worst pain‑wise I’ve had to go through.” Yikes, and this is coming from the guy who's raced through ACL tears, previous back problems and knee surgeries.

Joe Gibbs Racing

With Hamlin's win at the Glen, Joe Gibbs Racing has won 10 of the 22 races in 2016. Just how dominant has that been? That win total is the same as the number of wins earned by Penske (five), Stewart-Haas (three) and Hendrick (two) combined. Here's a look back at what has undoubtedly been the summer of JGR.


Kyle Busch is back at it again. After his early exit from the Zippo 200 on Saturday, Busch and his wife Samantha toured the Watkins Glen campgrounds and left a surprise for a couple of his fans. The defending Sprint Cup Champion signed a No. 18 decal a couple of campers had on the side of their RV. "They're not home right now, but they'll have quite a surprise when they come back," Samantha says of the RV owners in the video post. Earlier this year Busch surprised a fan while in traffic leaving Martinsville Speedway, and in the spirit of Fan Appreciation we can definitely get on board with this.
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