Seven races into the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, the list of winners is starting to grow. There have already been six different drivers representing five different teams to visit victory lane. Chevrolet accounts for five of those wins, while Ford and Toyota have each put one driver in the winner’s circle so far. Yet it’s also interesting to note who is not included in the list of winners – namely the four drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing. Other than Marin Truex Jr’s win in the exhibition Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, JGR has not captured a Cup Series checkered flag in 2023.
It is not that the Gibbs drivers have performed poorly to start the season, but they have lacked consistent race-winning speed. Christopher Bell has been the best of the bunch so far, currently third in points. Truex is ninth with Denny Hamlin not far behind in 12th. If the regular season were to end today, all three of them would be playoff eligible. Rookie Ty Gibbs is further down the points standings in 20th, but that’s not a surprise given his lack of experience at the Cup level.
Bell, Truex and Hamlin, on the other hand, are all expected to be championship contenders. There is obviously a lot of racing left to go before the postseason begins, and, as we have learned over the years, performance during the playoff races is the most important factor for winning the title.
Yet playoff points do make a big difference, and that is where JGR could be in trouble down the line. The entire team has banked only a single playoff point, courtesy of Hamlin winning stage two at Richmond Raceway last weekend. Compare that to the 21 banked playoff points for Hendrick Motorsports, a total to which William Byron and Kyle Larson added at Richmond with a stage win and race win respectively. It may be early, but it already feels like JGR is in a hole.
What is even worse for the Gibbs drivers is how easily those Richmond playoff points could have swung in their favor. Larson and Byron dominated the first half of the race until Hamlin and Bell broke up the Hendrick party near the end of stage two. Bell had run in the top 10 throughout the race while Hamlin had worked his way back to the front of the field after an early pit road speeding penalty. Along the way, an incident where Hamlin spun JJ Yeley brought out the caution on lap 45. It was during the following yellow flag period when Truex came to pit road for a fresh set of tires, although…
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