Hellman’s 500 at Talladega: Takeaways and observations
By Ted Fleming
3. Take Four: Joe Gibbs Racing claims half of remaining Chase field
Unless absolute catastrophe happens over the next three races, Joe Gibbs Racing should have at least one car in the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway now that they have their entire stable in the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Matt Kenseth (No. 20 Toyota), Carl Edwards (No. 19), Denny Hamlin (No. 11) and Kyle Busch (No. 18) have all advanced into the Round of 8 with Busch being the defending champion.
In the Hellman’s 500, three JGR cars dropped to the back of the field hoping to avoid a problem in front of them while hoping to maintain their position in the points standings. Only Hamlin raced up front and he took home a third to make it on a tie-breaker, while Kenseth (28th), Edwards (29th) and Busch (30th) did exactly what they needed to move on.
“All day everybody was so uptight,” said team owner Joe Gibbs. “I think that was about as nervous as I’ve been because you were just counting it on the board with Denny (Hamlin). At the end there, on our board it flipped and went the other way – it put the 3 (Austin Dillon) in front of us. I hit the panic switch. Just really proud of all of our guys. Everybody has worked so hard this year and I’m just excited to get four into that next round. It’s going to be a tough deal from here on out. You have to win from here on out.”