JGR leaps ahead of pack, eyes title
Listen to Joe Gibbs and he will tell you his race teams lagged behind the competition just 10 weeks ago.
Statistics show the organization has not only caught up but passed the leaders.
Gibbs drivers have won seven of the last 12 races, including a victory Sunday at Michigan International Speedway with Matt Kenseth. A Toyota team win in the shadow of Detroit was a triumph for the manufacturer — it ended a seven-race winning streak for Ford and Chevrolet teams — and a way for Joe Gibbs Racing to thank the automaker for its commitment to the organization.
Without the guidance of Toyota, JGR might still be struggling to keep up with the Hendricks and Penskes of the world.
“We’ve got great partners, thanks to Toyota, all the hard work they’ve done over the last year and a half,” Gibbs said.
Behind the scenes, Toyota Racing Development has quietly worked with JGR on closing gaps that clearly hampered the organization last year. Although Denny Hamlin made it to the final round of the Sprint Cup championship, it was a struggle to convince anyone that JGR’s cars were on the same level as the top contenders.
Kenseth, a seven-race winner who took Jimmie Johnson all the way to the finale in the 2013 championship race, went winless. Hamlin and Kyle Busch had just one victory apiece, and all three drivers felt TRD’s engines were not up to par.
JGR brought in Carl Edwards to expand to four teams this season, and both the team and the manufacturer had work to do to remain a powerhouse. Their efforts took a hit the day before the season-opening Daytona 500 when Busch was seriously injured in a crash. He missed the first 11 races of the season — otherwise known as the period in which JGR was struggling this season.
Busch returned in late May for the All-Star race, and just one week later, Edwards had his first JGR victory with a win in the Coca-Cola 600.
Busch grabbed his first win a month later on the road course at Sonoma, then reeled off three straight wins. Kenseth won at Pocono to make it four in a row for JGR, Busch settled for second the next week at Watkins Glen, and the team was back in victory lane Sunday at Michigan. Up next? Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Kenseth won in April.
As David Wilson, president and general manager of TRD, collected the Michigan Heritage Trophy given to the winning manufacturer, he insisted this surge is not sudden.
“People tend to think that this came on like a light switch,” said Wilson, who vowed to display the trophy at the Detroit Auto Show. “The reality is, this sport is so difficult, so competitive, it’s about working hard, and really that turnaround started last summer. We knew we were in trouble. We buckled down, and we kept digging.”