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CONCORD, N.C. — A year ago, Joe Gibbs Racing teams won seven of the first 12 races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
This year, the four-team organization is 0-for-10 and folks are asking, “What’s wrong with JGR?”
Each of the teams, with drivers Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Daniel Suarez, has had its moments this season, but the last victory for JGR came a year ago with a driver and a crew chief that are no longer competing for the organization.
For a group that’s put up double-digit wins the past two seasons, this year’s start has been puzzling.
Carl Edwards’ sudden departure, crew chief Dave Rogers’ equally unexpected leave of absence, and the elevation of Suarez to fill Edwards’ seat in the No. 19 entry are just a portion of the changes the group has undergone as the 2017 season dawned.
There’s also a new car — the front end of the Camry was re-tooled during the offseason to more closely reflect changes to the production model. Years of development and notebooks and knowledge didn’t suddenly become useless, but perhaps somewhat less useful.
It’s also worth noting that the expansion of Furniture Row Racing, which went from a single-car entity with driver Martin Truex Jr. to a two-car operation with the addition of Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Erik Jones, has also had something of an impact.
Tethered together via a technical alliance, JGR supplies chassis to Furniture Row, shares data and provides pit support. Both organizations obtain engines from Toyota Racing Development (TRD) based in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Truex won earlier this season at Las Vegas and is second in points.
While they’ve yet to win, Busch, who has four top-10 finishes, is 10th in points and Hamlin, also with four, is 11th.
Kenseth, however, is 18th in points in spite of four top-10 results and Suarez, also a Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, sits 21st with two top-10 finishes.
All but Suarez have led laps and been in contention at one point or another.
Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 from Kansas Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR) is the fourth race on a 1.5-mile track for the series this year. And Kenseth says it should be “a great test” for his No. 20 group as well as JGR overall.
“I feel like that’s been one of our better tracks the last few years,” Kenseth said during an appearance Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I … feel like that’s a great test to kind of see where our intermediate program is at.”
Kenseth, twice a winner at Kansas, led 116 laps last fall before finishing ninth; Busch is the defending champion of this weekend’s race. Hamlin has a Kansas trophy in the trophy case, as well.
“I think Saturday night after the race is over I’ll be able to tell you a lot better where our intermediate program is,” Kenseth said.
“We’re always trying to get ourselves better. Kansas … is the best test for that just because it’s a track we’ve been really good at. We were all really fast there both races last year; I thought we all ran really well there.”
Busch, who took part in a charity event at the track Thursday, has seen a reversal of fortunes at Kansas. In his first 14 starts, he managed only two top 10s. His last four finishes have all been fifth or higher, including last year’s victory.
“We seem to have gotten a setup or a hold of this place, I’d say, and hopefully we don’t screw that up this time around and we can continue our strong runs and our fast pace of being able to have a shot to win,” Busch said.
Qualifying for the Go Bowling 400 is scheduled to get under way Friday at 6:45 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN).