JGR On A Short Track Roll
4/23/2015
With wins at the last two short tracks, Hamlin and Kenseth have JGR rolling into Richmond.
Joe Gibbs Racing has been the smart bet on short tracks thus far this year.
The Toyota team is 2-for-2 thus far on the short tracks that the Sprint Cup Series has visited this season and will look to continue their perfect streak in the TOYOTA OWNERS 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
It also helps that Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards all have been very successful at Richmond. And, while David Ragan hasn’t been successful, the No. 18 Toyota has when piloted by Kyle Busch, so that team certainly will carry notes over to Ragan.
Among Hamlin, Kenseth and Edwards, there are five wins accrued, with Hamlin leading the way with three. Hamlin averages an 11th place finish, while Edwards averages 13.9 and Kenseth averages 16.9.
After his win at Martinsville, Hamlin said that one reason the entire team has succeeded has been because of information sharing.
“I’ve never withheld any information that I could give to my teammates that I shouldn’t have,” he said. “I’ll always be a total open book to those guys, and they’ve been awesome teammates to me this year. I’m really excited about what Joe has put together, his driver lineup, and the way we’ve worked together so far. It’s really been fun.”
In some cases, like Kenseth at Bristol, the success hasn’t just come from the quality equipment or the information from teammates, but just being really good at the track.
“I do enjoy (Bristol),” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed this type of racing, even though sometimes it’s frustrating you get caught up in a wreck, you have those things happen, but I enjoy it because it’s just so fast and it’s a short track and you get to do more racing, I guess, less dependent on aero and other things and more racing.”
Kenseth also said that he feels the team is getting better and better each week.
“I feel like this year we’ve really been gaining on it, all of us,” he said. “Carl has been good enough to win the last couple weeks. Just had terrible luck. So, I really feel like we’re gaining on it. Everybody’s been working really, really hard on it, and you know, we’ve got two wins and it’s April, where last year we had two wins all year. Hopefully we can build on that.”
Given the short track success this season, Richmond might just be that place where JGR keeps building on their 2015 season.
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