Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing

New Pieces Fitting Nicely At Joe Gibbs Racing

For Joe Gibbs Racing, change is a wonderful thing.
After a less-than-spectacular season a year ago, JGR installed two new crew chiefs and overhauled its Toyota engine program.
With a victory and all three of its drivers ranking among the top 10 in the championship standings – for the first time since 2008 – it’s definitely so far, so good.
Last year’s championship crew chief Darian Grubb, now calling the shots for Denny Hamlin, put the No. 11 Toyota in Victory Circle in just his second outing last weekend in Phoenix. Hamlin is the points leader entering this week’s race in Las Vegas.
Jason Ratcliff, promoted from the NASCAR Nationwide Series with a stellar resume containing two championships and 30 victories, has backed Joey Logano to consecutive top-10 finishes.
Dave Rogers, the sole holdover crew chief, watched Kyle Busch finish sixth in Phoenix and win last month’s Shootout at Daytona.
It’s been more than a year since JGR finished all three of its cars among the top 10 in the same race. Hamlin won at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 24, 2010, with Busch and Logano placing fourth and sixth respectively.

Odds Good For Hendrick Motorsports Spinning ‘200’ In Vegas

You probably can’t go wrong putting money on a Hendrick Motorsports driver gifting the company its signature 200th victory on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The team, which trails only Petty Enterprises among winning organizations, counts five wins in its 14 trips to LVMS. That’s second only to the seven victories recorded by Roush Fenway Racing.
Jimmie Johnson has four wins – three of those victories coming in his 2006-07 and 2010 championship seasons. Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon owns the other win in 2001, his most recent title season.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was HMS’ only top-10 finisher (eighth) in 2011. Newcomer Kasey Kahne finished 14th after starting 30th. Johnson recorded the team’s 199th win at Kansas Speedway last October.
HMS has started slowly in 2012. Earnhardt, fifth in points, is the only team member ranked among the current top 20.

Superlative Start Across The Board For These Three Top-10 Teams

Success in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series means bringing a friend. Or two. Even three.
Three teams – Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing – have two or more drivers among the top 10 in points with two races complete.
That might not be enough races upon which to base a long-term trend.
Still, it signals that off-track activity over the winter months has produced positive results.
That’s particularly true at JGR, where Denny Hamlin, his championship hopes dashed in the season’s final two races despite winning eight times in 2010, went flat two seasons ago.
His Phoenix win followed a fourth-place finish in the Daytona 500 – a race he likely could have won with some drafting help.
Roush’s three teams continue to bask in the afterglow of Matt Kenseth’s Daytona 500 victory. Greg Biffle boasts back-to-back top-three finishes and Carl Edwards held onto 10th in the standings despite a late Phoenix altercation that cost him a possible top-five finish.
And Waltrip? Truly the early surprise performer, although Martin Truex Jr., ranked sixth, finished 2011 with top 10s in four of the last five races. Mark Martin grabbed his 52nd Coors Light Pole at Phoenix, finished ninth and stands on the cusp of becoming the series’ oldest winner at age 53.