Hamlin and Gibbs: Tension at Joe Gibbs Racing after on-track incident

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Calm has returned to the Joe Gibbs Racing team after last week’s incident between teammates Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs. Hamlin, who is in the playoffs, and Gibbs, grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, had a run-in on the track, where Hamlin collided with Gibbs. After the contact, Hamlin asked his team radio if the organization was afraid to give orders to the 22-year-old young driver.

I definitely got too upset and went too far on my part.

Denny Hamlin

The three-time Daytona 500 champion admitted that “there were things I should have done differently”. Christopher Bell, JGR teammate, stated that the message was clear about how Toyota drivers should race each other at this time of year. There are six races left to crown the Cup champion.

We shouldn’t crash. That was very clear and obviously incorrect and I hope it doesn’t happen again. I think it was already clear to us before, and we just need to respect each other.

Christopher Bell

Meanwhile, Chase Briscoe, a JGR driver, earned his seventh pole position of the year to lead the grid on Sunday in Kansas. He will start alongside Hamlin. Briscoe’s seven poles are the most in a single season since Kyle Busch in 2017.

Briscoe and Hamlin will probably race cleanly at the start, which, according to Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports driver, is the right thing to do. Gibbs was competing too hard with a title contender who turns out to be his teammate at a point too early in last week’s race.

I think in the end, if you’re competing for a win, you’re competing for a win. You’re never going to give up a win in the Cup for a teammate. But I think if you’re running in the middle of the pack in a stage, yes, that expectation should be followed.

Kyle Larson

Larson said that the expectations of how Hendrick’s drivers should race among themselves are clearly defined and are evident on the track every week.

I think you’re always looking for what you can do to make things a little easier on your teammates. Television probably doesn’t even see the teamwork that happens, but last week, Alex Bowman gave me a lot of breaks at the end of the first stage. I passed him and then I was running out of fuel. He could have easily passed me, but he stayed there. So it’s little things like that where I think Denny probably expected that, since every team that has multiple cars has had a conversation about those expectations. So, sure, I could see Denny’s frustration. I’m sure they had a lot of conversations this week, so I would expect it to be much better.

Kyle Larson