Editor’s note: The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author.
RICHMOND, Va. — It began as a Toyota blowout and ended in pretty much the same fashion.
Not that there weren’t some bumps in the road — or in this case, Richmond International Raceway — along the way. But they were few and far between.
Denny Hamlin, the winner when the season began back in February in Daytona, closed the door on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular season with a victory in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400.
It was Hamlin’s third win of the season, the 11th for the Joe Gibbs Racing organization and the 13th for Toyota.
No need to pencil the Joe Gibbs gang in as favorites in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup. Write it in ink.
Joe Gibbs Racing. Chase favorites.
Doesn’t mean a JGR driver, or even a Toyota team — let’s not overlook Martin Truex Jr. and the Furniture Row Racing group — will waltz away with the title a little more than two months from now. NASCAR races are often strange affairs filled with strange occurrences. Such was the case Saturday night.
Toyota teams led 197 of the first 200 laps and 385 of the 407 that made up the extended 400-lap event.
But along the way, particularly in the second half of the race when the air was filled with yellow flags, the start-and-stop nature of the race threatened to turn the event into something completely different. Excessive pit stops meant more tires, but the allotment for each race is finite. Eventually you run out.
No one did, fortunately.
The racing was physical and no one seemed spared. For those with Chase hopes, however slim, still hanging in the balance, there was no packing it in for the night. Instead it was, fix it fast and get back out there.
But in the end, it was a race dominated by Toyotas and that’s been the case quite a number of times this year. With only 10 races remaining, can anyone derail the automaker’s efforts?
“I would say I feel pretty confident in our cars,” winning crew chief Mike Wheeler said afterward. “That’s a good feeling to have.”
His own team, he said, has gone into the Chase with the feeling that the No. 11 team could win some races and be competitive. “But you always had this feeling of you can get beat,” he said. “If you’re not at 100 percent you can get beat.
“I feel good now that if we hit 100 percent, we will win. That’s something you strive for.”
JGR fields four teams for drivers Hamlin, defending series champion Kyle Busch, 2003 champ Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. Toss in Truex and Furniture Row as well.
“We share notes. We work together,” Wheeler said. “We do the best we can for not only Joe Gibbs Racing but Toyota.”
But as JGR owner Joe Gibbs noted, Wheeler said, “All it takes is a flat tire or a crash and you’re out.”
That’s the new nature of the Chase, where elimination rounds trim the 16-team field by a quarter after every three races. One problem, and a season’s over.
Ten races from now, someone will be crowned 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. Someone who avoids the unavoidable and doesn’t beat themselves.
“I think the other cars that are out there, there’s so many … well‑prepared cars, I think this is going to be a battle,” Gibbs said. “I think … there’s no way that you can I think pick a favorite right now because it’s really three‑race playoffs (to get to Homestead and the championship round).”
Hamlin has fallen by the wayside before, and so, too, has Busch.
“You can’t afford a bad race,” Gibbs said. “Our playoff is one where you got to be consistent, but also you got to be on your game and racing extremely hard. I don’t think there is a favorite right now. I think everybody that’s in there is going to have a shot.”
Folks thought that going into Richmond, too. Until Hamlin and Gibbs and Toyota proved ’em all wrong.