Even before the Joe Gibbs Racing team offered up its Richmond International Raceway speed clinic last Saturday — all four cars were running first-second-third and fourth midway through the night’s regular season finale — many NASCAR pundits had made up their mind.
With JGR driver Matt Kenseth leading a dominant 352 of 400 laps at Richmond en route to his fourth win of the season and the team’s eighth in the past 10 races, who would argue that JGR is the team to beat heading into Sunday’s playoff opener of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup?
The team has led more than 2,000 miles and collected 11 of the season’s first 26 race trophies. Kenseth and teammate Kyle Busch have each won four races tying Jimmie Johnson‘s season high mark.
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And all four Gibbs Toyotas appear to be hitting on all cylinders at a time when winning matters most. Most troubling to the competition is that it’s not just one driver leading the charge, nor one style of venue where their cars are fast.
Busch, for example, won four times in a five-race stretch this summer on a road course, big speedway, short track, and a 1.5-miler that will comprise most of the Chase dates.
“I feel like as a company right now, all four cars are really strong,” Kenseth said. “I felt like we were really strong in the Chase in 2013, but ended up getting beat.
“I feel like as a company right now, we’re stronger than we were in ’13. We had a lot of different things happen where all four of us now have been able to win races and we’re all in the Chase. I feel like as a company we’re stronger this year.”
His boss, former Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs, was all smiles when he met the press following Kenseth’s victory.
“Obviously we’re thrilled,” he said of the Chase outlook. “Now the problem is, I think for the next three weeks I’ll be ready to throw up at any minute. That’s the bottom line (smiling).”
For Gibbs and the team, much of the satisfaction in earning four Chase bids is the difficult path to success — a lot to overcome with both man and machine. It’s easy to forget that the first two months of the season, Toyota and JGR were struggling and the questions were about if the team would be represented in the Chase at all.
Busch missed the first 11 races of the season and yet — with one of the most impressive efforts in Cup history — he still managed to win four races and earn enough points to be Chase eligible.
Kenseth’s victory in Bristol, Tenn. this March was his first since September of 2013 (New Hampshire) and his four wins is only the second time in the last nine years he’s taken home that much hardware.
RELATED: Kenseth dominates his way to Richmond win
Carl Edwards‘ two wins are his first after moving to the Gibbs organization this year from his longtime Cup home, Roush Fenway Racing.
And Denny Hamlin, who led the JGR charge in 2014 and advanced all the way to the Chase Final Four, is now playing hurt after tearing his ACL during a pick-up basketball game. He’ll have surgery after the season. There’s a title to win now.
RELATED: Hamlin tears ACL | Hamlin pushes past pain with Chase approaching
The key is being confident, not comfortable.
“I’m sure Joe is very confident that he has a great shot,” Hamlin said smiling. “He’s got a 25 percent chance with four cars out of the 16 so realistically, the Vegas odds are probably even a little better than that, that it will be a Gibbs car (winning the championship).
“But we’ve been in the sport long enough to know Homestead is still two and a half months away and a lot changes in our sport in two and a half months. Seems like two months ago we really hit our stride so we’ve got to keep our head down and continue to improve every race because as fast as our cars are now, the competition will pass us if we sit still.
“We were on other side for so long, really two years. I feel like our set-ups have gotten better, a lot of little things have gotten better. I feel like we’re all pushing each other to be better. I think TRD (Toyota Racing Development) really stepped up the program.
“All in all, you just have to hope to keep improving. That’s what you really worry about that you are running so well, you don’t change, but we have to keep changing to stay on top.”
Busch even wondered aloud Saturday night if the team might pull off the ultimate championship storyline.
“It might be a race between all four Gibbs cars come Homestead, but I’m sure Joe [Gibbs] would love that,” Busch said smiling. “It’s a good time to be driving a Toyota for Joe Gibbs.”
