Why Hendrick and Joe Gibbs Racing Dominance Can End When NASCAR Playoffs Start

Ever since the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season began, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing have displayed dominance like never before. They have shared every single race victory so far barring a couple. Meanwhile, according to racing veteran Jeff Burton, that could end come the playoffs. It all has to do with the other teams making minor changes to their cars.

Burton believes that the rest of the field isn’t too far off from the two heavyweights. That is quite a bold prediction if you look at how the season has panned out so far. It will be considered quite a rise to form if one of the other teams can reach a similar level of performance even if it comes during the playoffs.

“Most of the good teams aren’t a mile off and so there’s a small amount to gain and you’re there. And so, is it easy? No, but the same way we saw two drivers and teams get hot and cold in the playoffs, you can also get hot in the regular season and so can it happen? Yeah it can happen. Will it be difficult to happen? Yep, it’s going to be really difficult to make those small changes to get where you need to be but yes, I think it can happen,” he said.

 

Brad Keselowski made a strong case for his team at Darlington

Based on current performance, RFK Racing seems like a strong challenger to the Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing dominance. The team recorded their first win of the season at the Darlington Raceway recently and it wasn’t a fluke result.

They’ve been improving throughout the season and Chris Buescher came within a whisker of winning the weekend before. He was close to winning at Darlington as well but it turned out to be Brad Keselowski’s day.

The Cup Series champion ended a winless run that had lasted nearly three years and more than 100 races. “There’s a lot of things to be excited about, don’t know which one means the most,” he said after the race as per ESPN.

It will be interesting to see which team or teams actually manage to properly break the HMS and JGR monopoly come the playoffs later this season.