The “survive and advance” mantra for this weekend’s debut of the Charlotte Motor Speedway oval/road course likely applies for the majority of Monster Energy Series playoffs field. But two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates may be forced to play a bold form of offense on an unfamiliar track.
Erik Jones ranks 15th among the 16 postseason drivers, 21 points off the elimination line heading into Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Right below him sits stablemate Denny Hamlin in the final spot, 29 points below the cut-off level. The lowest-ranking four drivers will be scratched from championship eligibility after Sunday’s event.
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Neither driver stands in a must-win situation to advance to the Round of 12, though that would scotch the mathematical guesswork by providing an automatic berth. But team owner Joe Gibbs said that both may have to lean more toward a more forceful approach to keep their postseason aims alive.
“I think obviously Erik’s first go-around on this, I think he’ll just have at it, and I think Denny, what we’ve got to do is throw caution to the wind,” Gibbs said. “That’ll be two cars that I think will just be — we’ve got a lot of ground to make up, and so I think they’ll be very aggressive.”
Failing a victory, both Jones and Hamlin would need help plus a new winner in the round (someone other than Brad Keselowski or Kyle Busch) to advance on the basis of points.
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Hamlin has never failed to clear the first round since the elimination format was introduced to the Monster Energy Series postseason in 2014. He has shown recent signs of speed by notching three pole positions in close succession near the end of the regular season, but his results haven’t backed those showings up.
That trend was especially evident last weekend at Richmond Raceway, historically one of his better tracks. Hamlin lagged after starting second while his teammate Kyle Busch worked his way from the back of the field to post his seventh win of 2018.
“It just seems like once we get into race trim, it just seems like I can’t get the car to do anything it’s supposed to do,” Hamlin said post-race. “I can make it go fast for a lap in qualifying. It just will not do the things that it’s supposed to do around the race track, and the things that when I watch the 18 (Busch), it’s doing successfully. So it’s just really disappointing.”