NASCAR Sprint Cup Texas preview: Can JGR continue to buddy up, reach goal?
There are only three bids remaining for the championship four and two races to secure them
By
Yvonne Jones
•
3 min read
With only three bids remaining for the championship four and two races left in which to secure them, how long will the Joe Gibbs Racing foursome of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards continue this 'good teammate' thing?
The four - except for Hamlin - stuck together at Talladega as they did just what they needed to do to advance to the Round of 8. Last Sunday in the round's opener at Martinsville, they played nice with each other and finished third (Hamlin), fourth (Kenseth) and fifth (Busch) as Jimmie Johnson surged to victory.
Busch was frustrated after the race and called out his teammates for not challenging for the win.
"We worked so good together that we gave the 48 [Johnson] car the win today," Busch said after Martinsville. "That's how good JGR is."
But before qualifying at Texas on Friday, Busch said that was behind them.
"We talked, forgive and forget and moved on and here we are," the reigning Sprint Cup champ said.
With Johnson snatching an automatic berth in the title race on Nov. 20, there aren't enough spots for the four JGR championship hopefuls.
"Our goal was to have all four cars at Homestead but now there's only three spots left," said Kenseth, a two-time winner at Texas. "But every week we talk about what we can do to help each other.
"But we all realize that at the end of the day when the green flag drops, we all know it's one against 39."
So can we expect a dog-eat-dog mentality in the AAA Texas 500 on Sunday?
Edwards doesn't think so.
"I've got great teammates and you know all of us have worked really really well all year raising each other's level of performance," he said. "So we'll just continue to work as hard as we can like we've been doing.
"But then we race each other really hard at the race track, too. So we are all competitors. Once the green flag drops, we all know how to race each other. But I don't think anything, I don't see anything changing over the next few races."
While his teammates currently occupy second, third and fourth in the Chase, Edwards sits eighth, 32 points out. So he'll likely need a win at Texas or Phoenix, the final race before Homestead.
"It's not a position you want to be in," Edwards said. "But 30-something points down, it does make things very simple. There is only one direction to go and that is forward and that is to win."
Edwards is a three-time winner at Texas - none since 2008 and all with Roush-Fenway Racing. But his last four trips have resulted in top 10s, including a seventh in April.
"I'm excited with how we ran in the spring," he said. "How fortunate we are to be going to Texas and Phoenix. These are two great tracks ... when you have to win ... for us.
"Practice was fast and hopefully it keeps rolling along like that."
Edwards qualified ninth for Sunday's race. Kenseth will roll off seventh; Hamlin 17th and Busch 24th in a backup car after a crash in practice.
"I know I've a strong group and a group of guys that will dig deep as they need to and get us where we need to being competitive here this weekend," said Busch, who picked up his second Texas win in the spring race.
"We want to have a good solid day. We'd like to win the race obviously, and punch our ticket and move right on through to Homestead. But if we can't have that, a good solid top 5 is kind of what we're looking for."
The JGR stable - with a combined 14 wins between Texas and Phoenix - will keep teaming up as it seeks multiple bids for Homestead.
"We all know that we all benefit from one another and we just keep working together like we have because we want a JGR Toyota to win this championship," said Edwards, who his seeking his first Cup title.
"It was really cool to be a small part of it last year, so that's our goal."
