Christopher Bell may have walked away a winner after Sunday’s 4EVER 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but was it a bad day overall for Joe Gibbs Racing?
NBC Sports analyst Kyle Petty appears to think so, saying that Bell’s victory did more harm than good for the race team. Bell’s win all but guaranteed that one of, if not both of his teammates, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin, will be eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs next weekend.
“A horrendous day for Joe Gibbs Racing even though Christopher Bell wins the race,” Petty said Monday. “Two of their contenders, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., they were gonna be good in points and all of a sudden within one lap, from Lap 236 to 237, both eliminated. Denny Hamlin breaks something going into Turn 1 and eliminates his day, gets in the wall. Martin Truex has engine failure. Now Martin Truex had a horrendous day on pit road, and that’s what put him in a bad position all day long.
“The third thing that happened bad for Joe Gibbs Racing is Christopher Bell wins the race because that puts Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex at a deficit of minus 17. If Ryan Blaney or someone else won the race, it was a little bit tighter. Best-case scenario, Kyle Larson wins the race.”
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates in tough spot heading into Martinsville
Truex finished the race 29th, while Hamlin came in behind him in 30th. As Petty mentioned, both sit 17 points behind the cutline to qualify for the Championship 4 heading into Sunday’s elimination race, the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
For Hamlin, the goal is simple: Take your No. 11 Toyota to victory lane for the 52nd time, and secure your spot to race for your first Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 5.
“I pretty much got to win,” Hamlin said after the race at Homestead-Miami, via NBC Sports. “We were in this situation last year and we dominated the race [at Martinsville before finishing fifth]. I felt like the last two years in a row we dominated the fall race… It’s disappointing, but that’s the format. You know if you have one bad race, especially in the Round of 8, you’re cooked and what you did for the first 35 races just doesn’t matter.”