RICHMOND, Va. – Denny Hamlin said on Friday afternoon at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway that Joe Gibbs Racing as an organization was going to get better.
On Sunday, they looked better and Hamlin led the four-car brigade with a third-place finish in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400. It was Hamlin’s first top-five and fourth top-10 of 2017.
“It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s not going to happen this week, it won’t happen in a month,” Hamlin said Friday afternoon. “Some things are going to take a long time for us to get better at.
“But, I’m very confident that when push comes to shove, we’re in September starting the (Playoffs), we should be hopefully back where we were, if not better.”
For much of Sunday’s race, Hamlin had a strong car – even putting his No. 11 FedEx Toyota in front of the field for 59 laps, but despite their best effort – there were no match for Team Penske with drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, who claimed 1-2 in the ninth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season.
While Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch experienced problems with a flat tire and a commitment line violation late in the race, Joe Gibbs Racing seemed to find a little of their missing mojo on the anticipation of the second restrictor-plate race of the season next Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
“Yeah, it was about as good as we had,” said Hamlin. “You know, we just didn’t have the speed that the other cars had. We talked about that Friday during media. But we optimized our day. It’s the best we could do. We finished right where we should have.”
Though a solid effort on Sunday, Hamlin isn’t completely convinced that their organization woes are behind them; in fact, the Chesterfield, Virginia native believes Joe Gibbs Racing has a lot of work to do.
“Yeah, I mean, I think that some of the issues that you might have with speed is masked just a little bit on a short track, so by no means does this indicate that we’ve fixed anything,” he said. “I think we know that we have some shortfalls, and when I’m running out front my balance is very, very good, where I need it to be, and we just don’t have a car that was quite fast enough.
“Aerodynamics matter, skew matters, things like that, and we’re just a little behind. So, we’ve got to just take solace in some small wins and goals, and today was a good finish. We executed great, didn’t make any mistakes, and finished right where we should have. We at least can build on that and try to survive this time of the season where we don’t have the fastest cars.
We haven’t gotten better. We’re really right where we were. I mean, if we go to a mile‑and‑a‑half next week, we’re just as far off as what we were a week ago. Literally, it’s just a short track, and so driver can make a little bit more difference in aerodynamics and skew and all that stuff doesn’t matter quite as much, but it’s still an issue for us.
“You’ve still got to have raw speed. You cannot just have a better setup than those guys and go out and beat them. You have to have a faster car, and we just ‑‑ you know, I’m optimistic. I hate to be pessimistic about today, but we’ve got to be real about it and realize, hey, it’s just a short track. We still have a lot of work to do to catch up.”
Nevertheless, Hamlin believes that will fight through the adversity and be good when it counts.
“There’s not much concern because I think we know where we need to work. We know where we need to get better,” Hamlin mentioned. “The tough part is sucking and not knowing why. That’s the tough part. At least if you know why, then you can go to work on those areas. And we have 500 employees at JGR that’s working very hard to make sure we’re going to be fast when it really counts at the end of the season, and until then, we’ve got to just do what we did today, and that’s get a good finish and stay as high in the points as we can. That way when we have cars that can win, we can capitalize on those moments.
“I’m not really worried. It’s just frustrating. I knew going into today that we were at a disadvantage before we even rolled off pit road. But you’ve got to just do everything you can to fight as hard as you can and maybe the chips would fall just perfectly for us, but they didn’t, and we still had a good finish.
I’m optimistic that we know where we need to be, and we’ll be there soonish.”
Of course, Hamlin has momentum riding to Talladega Superspeedway, where not only is he a previous winner, but feels confident in the team’s superspeedway program. After all, he is the 2016 Daytona 500 champion.
“Definitely looking forward to it,” Hamlin said with a grinning smile. “Our Superspeedway program has been great at JGR. I’ve really gotten pretty good on superspeedways, so it’s a race ‑‑ it’s honestly probably the best chance I have at winning until a few months from now. Everything is pretty level. I’m optimistic we’re going to have a car that can win, and I’ll do the best I can to fight for every position.
“Really, the superspeedways are tracks where we get excited because we know we can go out there and win.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email him at [email protected].
