Joe Gibbs Racing has taken the precautions in hopes of avoiding mechanical failures in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race this weekend.
Gibbs will compete for the title at Phoenix Raceway with drivers Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. Sunday’s season finale will be determined between Gibbs and Hendrick Motorsports.
“We’ve been on that all morning,” Joe Gibbs said Monday. “We’ve got the parts out and looked at everything. I think issues with the motors are always concerning. You never want that to happen. But I think we kind of have understood where we are and what those parts were, and have made adjustments, for sure.
“Those parts will not be in the cars for this weekend. So … feel good about that.”
Hamlin’s No. 11 team has suffered multiple issues in recent weeks, including two different situations at Martinsville Speedway. Saturday, Hamlin’s car had what appeared to be another starter issue before qualifying. On Sunday, it was a blown engine that ended Hamlin’s race.
There was a power steering issue for Hamlin at Kansas Speedway and a throttle issue at Talladega Superspeedway. Hamlin noted after the Talladega race that the team has battled three of the biggest mechanical issues this season: batteries, starters and clutches.
“I’m obviously concerned, but there obviously nothing I can do about it,” said Hamlin of his Martinsville engine issue. “We’ll live with it and hopefully we’ll get back next week and we are just going to have to see how it goes. I’m confident in the speed that we’ll have next week. I’m really confident in what this team is going to bring next week and we’ll bring our best; hopefully it lasts.”
The engine issue for Hamlin came after his teammate, Briscoe, exited the race earlier in the afternoon, also with an engine issue.
“No indication,” Briscoe said. “I was just running around there. I felt really good about coming here and where we were at and racing with (Kyle) Larson there and went to upshift and something happened. I’m not really sure; it’s unfortunate. We’ll go on to next week and that won’t matter anyways.”
