Just as it’s been for the past few months Joe Gibbs Racing was the dominant team Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. As all four of its drivers looked like potential winners, combining to lead 320 of a possible 500 laps.
NASCAR Bristol 2015: Joe Gibbs Racing’s strong night undone by rash of troubles
All four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers were fast, but a bevy of issues prevent the team from winning at Bristol.
However, any chance for a seventh win in nine races came undone because of parts failures, a costly penalty, bad luck and other teams simply performing better when it mattered most.
The night began with JGR cars starting 1-2-3 for the second straight week and Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch combining to lead the opening 254 circuits. But the first indication trouble was afoot came when Matt Kenseth suffered a blown engine and retired prematurely just 110 lap into the Irwin Tools Night Race.
“We dropped a valve,” Kenseth said. “Things like that happen. “Our stuff has been pretty reliable the last year and a half, and we’ve been making a lot of power. The encouraging part is that our cars are really fast and I thought we were an adjustment away from having what we really needed to run with everybody.”
Trouble then hampered Busch and Carl Edwards with each having to make unscheduled pit stops while leading for loose wheels. Both fell two laps down when pitting under green flag conditions, though each would recover and get back on the same lap as the leaders.
Busch, who led a race-high 192 laps, later got busted for speeding on pit road under caution with 65 laps to go. He was to have restarted third, but instead had to fall to the back of the pack on the ensuing restart. He rallied to finish sixth.
“We had a loose wheel, and we battled back from that and then you speed on the last stop -- you can’t win if you speed on the last stop,” said Adam Stevens, Busch’s crew chief. “That’s all there is to it.”
While Hamlin was the lone JGR driver not to be slowed by an issue, he wasn’t able to maintain the same pace throughout the evening. Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick emerged with better cars during the latter stages.
Logano and Harvick separated themselves over the final 63 caution-free laps with Logano claiming the win and Harvick finishing second. Hamlin was scored third.
“Pretty good run for us, but we just didn’t have the speed those guys had there those last couple runs and just fought the balance of the car really all day,” Hamlin said. “Either way a decent day, but we expect a little bit more out, but still a third-place ain’t too bad.”
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