Joe Gibbs Racing has two drivers feuding, but another pair of teammates were the primary concern after the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.
While the JGR Toyotas were struggling and spinning each other on the 1.058-mile oval, the Team Penske Fords of Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano were dominating at a track with similarities to the 1-mile layout at the championship venue where Penske has won three consecutive titles, Phoenix Raceway.
“I think the biggest thing
you’ve got to take away from today is that at a 1-mile racetrack, the Penske cars are completely untouchable again,” JGR director of competition Chris Gabehart said. “The reality is we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
After a virtually perfect first round of the playoffs with three consecutive victories, Joe Gibbs Racing opened the second round dealing with an internal squabble of Denny Hamlin vs. Ty Gibbs and an external threat from Penske — which is familiar for championship contenders in NASCAR’s premier series.
Penske has won Cup titles on late-season surges by Blaney, who won two of the final six races in 2023, and Logano, who won two of the last four in ’22 and ’24.
With six races left this season, the team got a head start on its championship push at New Hampshire. Logano started on the pole position and took fourth after leading a race-high 147 of 301 laps. Blaney started second and led 116 laps for his third victory this year.
“We did a great job of preparing, and our cars are really fast as a whole,” Blaney said. “It’s huge anytime you can win in the playoffs. It’s just momentum. When you win in the playoffs, it’s just a confidence boost for everybody. Maybe a little weight off your shoulders.”
The burden of playoff pressure has shifted to JGR, which led only 19 laps as its three-race win streak at New Hampshire was snapped. The team’s top finisher was Christopher Bell in sixth — the first time since September 2014 that JGR left New Hampshire without a top five.
“We just didn’t have the pace to run with the top competitors,” said Bell, who has won at Kansas Speedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, the last two tracks in the second round. “I feel good about our performance at the next two (races), but I felt good about our performance coming into here and it didn’t turn out.”
As Blaney advanced with a victory, Bell remained a solid bet to be among the other seven contenders who will reach the third round. He is ranked fourth among the 12 playoff drivers and a spot ahead of Hamlin, who finished 12th after his dustup with Gibbs.
Hamlin had some choice words on his team radio for the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, who is out of the playoffs but seemed to impede the progress of his teammates early in the race. Gabehart downplayed the dissension, which he said would be defused in team meetings this week.
“I think there’s a reasonable etiquette to follow,” Gabehart said. “But at the same time, you can’t create an atmosphere where everybody just has to roll over and play nice all the time, either, or you won’t hang as many banners as Joe Gibbs Racing has hung over the years.”
Hamlin was focused more on his disappointing performance than patching things up.
“Certainly, we didn’t come here with our best,” Hamlin said. “Got to get a little faster, get the car handle a little better, and I certainly got to do a better job.”
Blaney suggested a new right-side tire might have dulled JGR’s edge at New Hampshire.
“I didn’t think they had the pace that I expected,” Blaney said. “This sport is just ebbs and flows, ups and downs. We just hit it really good this weekend. When you have a big tire change, it can really turn you around.”
The same tire will be used for the 2025 season’s final two races at Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix, where Bell won in March.
But Logano clinched his past two titles by winning the championship race at Phoenix, and Blaney captured the 2023 title with a second in the season finale and was runner-up last year.
“The reality is it’s playoff season, and here come the (Penske) cars,” Gabehart said. “Those guys know how to get it done when it counts, and we’ll just have to race them the rest of the year and see how it goes. They’re going to be very tough.”
Kansas Speedway has been a good track at 23XI Racing, which needs a boost after stumbling badly at New Hampshire. Tyler Reddick (21st) and Bubba Wallace (26th) fell to the last two spots in the playoff points standings.
Wallace, who won at Kansas in 2022, said New Hampshire was “the longest day I’ve had in a race car in a long time. To be that far off, it caught all of us by surprise. It’s just a head scratcher. I told our team we’re way better than that.”
Reddick battled brake problems from the outset en route to his third consecutive finish of 15th or worse since a second in the playoff opener at Darlington.
“I thought we were going to be able to run in the top 10 all day,” said Reddick, a 2023 winner at Kansas. “It just got away quick. Just a terrible day. There’s just a lot of question marks, honestly. We need something special to happen. I’m hoping we find the answer.”
With its playoff trio of William Byron (third), Chase Elliott (fifth) and Kyle Larson (seventh), Hendrick Motorsports had three top 10s at New Hampshire for the first time in a decade. Elliott delivered an impressive drive after qualifying 27th — his fifth consecutive start outside the top 15.
“Just hate I put us in those holes,” NASCAR’s seven-time most popular driver said. “It’s a great day for sure to battle and claw our way back up into the mix, but you hate to have to do that.”
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