Team dynamics get complicated for Joe Gibbs Racing

After Carl Edwards nudged Kyle Busch out of the lead entering the final corner on the final lap to win in April at Richmond International Raceway, Busch understandably was less than pleased.

Because the two are Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Busch largely bit his tongue, refusing to say anything bombastic to cause an organization-wide rift. Helping matters, Richmond was a race with lesser importance, just one of 26 during the regular season and certainly without the significance of the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, or one of NASCAR’s other majors.

A week later any tension between Edwards and Busch, the defending Sprint Cup champion, had subsided. The hatchet formally buried when the two took a photo jointly holding a signed certificate from M&Ms (Busch’s sponsor) congratulating Edwards on his Richmond win.

Such camaraderie among teammates has been the hallmark this season within JGR where Busch, Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Denny Hamlin have benefited from a relationship that has stressed openness. Crew chiefs share not just chassis setups like most organizations, but also mid-race pit strategies, and the drivers have gone out of their way to help one another on and off the track.

Of course it’s easy to act harmonious when success has been in abundance. Toyota’s flagship team has seen JGR’s four drivers combine to win 11 of 32 races and lead 37 percent of all laps. Impressive numbers giving credence that any one of them could deliver the manufacturer its second consecutive championship.

But as the Chase for the Sprint Cup reaches its third of four rounds, JGR finds itself facing a delicate situation. Busch, Edwards, Hamlin, and Kenseth each have qualified for the eight-driver semifinal round, marking the first time since NASCAR went to a knockout playoff format in 2014 that a single organization has advanced more than two drivers this far.

So with the stakes heightened considerably, will JGR’s unity continue unimpeded?

“You hope the racing doesn’t change,” Kenseth said. “I think it’s just business as usual. We’ve got this far by working together really closely. ... I don’t see that changing.”

That closeness will, in all likelihood, be tested now. Because now with the Chase field whittled down and the pretenders separated from the contenders, the reality is there is no escaping the fact that any attainment by one JGR driver comes at the expense of the others.

Sure, JGR appears poised to have at least one representative, maybe even two if all goes well in the winner-take-all title race championship finale Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Any more transferring than that, though, seems remote. Especially with the consistent speed flexed through the Chase by the Chevrolets of Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson.

Which means it’s tough not to think hard feelings may linger longer than a week if the win that guarantees a spot in the final round comes via a forceful move like the one Edwards put on Busch at Richmond.

“You’ve got to win, the farther you go on in this format,” Gibbs said. “Now everybody’s geared up. You’re going to have to try and win a race.”

Of the four, Busch and Hamlin are best positioned to reach victory lane at least once in the trio of third round races. Busch won in the spring at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, the site of Sunday’s Round 3 opener, and at Texas Motor Speedway, the middle event preceding the elimination race at Phoenix International Raceway. As for Hamlin, he owns more victories on the Virginia short track (five) than any other venue on the Sprint Cup schedule, and is a two-time winner at Texas, a 1.5-mile quad-oval.

The slate of upcoming races had Hamlin relishing his title prospects after narrowly making it out of the quarterfinal round via a tiebreaker over Austin Dillon.

“I’ve got my best racetracks ahead of us,” Hamlin said. “There’s no reason why we can’t be racing at Homestead for a championship.

“That’s what I expect.”

To fulfill these expectations, Hamlin will need to defeat three guys who know every intricate detail about his No. 11 team. Making an already formidable task all that much harder.