HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Given his Hall of Fame careers in both the NFL and NASCAR, Joe Gibbs has been able to coach his players through some of the most devastating defeats of their careers.
Sunday certainly fell into the devastating category for two of his three championship contenders. While Christopher Bell was clutch once again—winning at Homestead-Miami Speedway when the odds were against him—Denny Hamlin and regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr., found themselves in the garage with 31 and 32 laps, respectively, remaining in Sunday’s 4EVER 400.
When Coach entered the NASCAR ranks more than three decades ago, he said the hardest concept of racing to grasp is that only one team can win each week. That presents quite the dilemma for a four-car owner.
How does he plan to keep morale high on the Nos. 11 and 19 teams with only one race—Sunday at Martinsville Speedway—remaining to determine the Championship 4?
“I think it’s got a lot to do with character, the people you have in those positions,” Gibbs said. “I think both Denny and Martin, that’s why we’re so fortunate, those two guys are veteran guys. In our competition meetings, they’re talking, and I think Ty (Gibbs) and Christopher are listening to a lot of it. It’s really helped us.
“But I think it goes back to character and selecting people on your team. Today Adam (Stevens, Bell’s crew chief) and Christopher, they don’t give up. I know Denny and Martin won’t either. It’s just amazing sometimes what can happen in this sport.”
Hamlin and Truex must have thought the same thing on Sunday. Hamlin was shellshocked when he was “Hail Melon-ed” last year at Martinsville. He never saw Ross Chastain coming, let alone bumping him out of the Championship 4 on the final lap of the race with an ulikley banzai run around the outside wall in the final corner.
Hamlin entered Homestead 11 points above the cut line. He scored points in both stages and led 31 laps. Not in his wildest dreams could Hamlin had imagined his steering breaking 236 laps into the event.
“I felt really good about my car—especially on the short run there,” Hamlin said. “I thought we were going to have the best car here at the finish, but we didn’t.
“If I have to win (at Martinsville), we’re going to try and win. That’s what we go to every race track trying to do. We were in that situation last year. We dominated the race. Really for the last two years in a row we dominated the race. We just have to go with the same mentality that we always do.”
“If our season ends because of a mechanical, it ends, and that’s just part of it.”
Yes, Hamlin was disappointed. At 42, he’s learned to accept situations he can’t control. The Hamlin on Sunday was nowhere close to the despondent driver who sat blankly on the wall at Phoenix Raceway in 2010. After a dominant season, where Hamlin won eight races, he appeared to be headed to his ninth win in the penultimate race when his crew chief Mike Ford elected to pit. Hamlin had led 190 laps but finished 12th in that debacle 13 years ago.
Despite entering the season finale with a 15-point lead over Jimmie Johnson, Hamlin lost to the No. 48 team by 39 points at Homestead. Hamlin has appeared to be snakebit ever since.
“It’s disappointing, but that’s the format, right? You have one bad race—especially in the Round of 8—and you’re cooked,” Hamlin said. “What you did for the first 35 races, doesn’t matter. Me and Truex look like we’ll probably be out. I don’t know. Moving on.”
Truex didn’t even stop to address the media after his engine failed on Lap 237—ironically one lap after Hamlin. In addition to winning the regular-season title, the No. 19 scored three wins, nine top fives and 15 top 10s. While Truex was a favorite for the title entering the Playoffs, his first top 10 in the postseason came last weekend at Las Vegas.
“To have the 19 do what it did in regular season, you don’t luck out on that,” Gibbs said. “That was 26 weeks, won it by a bunch.
“It shows you what can happen in sports. It’s the greatest reality show in the world because we don’t know. I think as fans, that’s why we all like it. We don’t know. So just thrilled to be a part of it. God has blessed us with a lot of great people really.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
