Although Ryan Blaney punched his ticket into the Round of 8 with a clutch victory in the New Hampshire opener of the second round of the postseason, it was Joe Gibbs Racing that stole the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
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Fits flew in Stage 2 when contact from Denny Hamlin turned his non-playoff teammate Ty Gibbs, igniting a storm inside the Toyota and JGR camps.
Running 11th on Lap 110, Gibbs held track position and fought tooth and nail with Hamlin and Christopher Bell before the No. 11, quicker on pace, dove under the No. 54 and tapped his left rear, sending him spinning into the Turn 1 wall, triggering a caution.
Already on edge, Hamlin aired his frustrations on the radio: “Does Ty know we’re going for a championship? What the f**k?” Ty Gibbs fired back with a terse “Game on” before limping to the garage with a broken toe link that ended his afternoon.
While Ty brushed the clash off as “unfortunate,” Hamlin admitted fault afterward but passed the ball to team leadership, saying, “I’ll let leadership kind of quarterback it, however they’d like to. Obviously, us, [Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe], are all trying to win a championship for their family. So it’s crazy unfortunate why we’re racing the way we are.”
The dust-up emphasized the gap between drivers chasing a title and teammates with nothing to lose, raising questions about whether Hamlin and Gibbs can stay on the same page through the playoffs.
Team owner Joe Gibbs, however, downplayed the drama, insisting the drivers should iron it out themselves. “Those guys are the ones driving the cars. Those guys will get together on their own and figure it out. It’s hard for me, it’s not me, it’s the drivers. That’s how I’ve always looked at this.”
Competition director Chris Gabehart echoed that sentiment, suggesting Hamlin may have misread the tight quarters between Gibbs and Bell.
He noted that Bell and Hamlin are locked in on the championship, while Gibbs is chasing wins and carving out his own name, leaving little room to breathe. Gabehart expects the inevitable sit-down to strengthen, rather than divide, the JGR stable.
It will also be interesting to see if any retaliation is on the cards from the No. 54 driver towards Hamlin in the future.
