FANTASY NASCAR Racin

JOE JACKSON GIBBS - 11/25/1940 -
is a former American football coach, NASCAR Championship team owner, and two time NHRA team owner. He was the 20th and 26th head coach in the history of the Washington Redskins (1981–1992, 2004–2007). During his first stint in the National Football League, he coached the Redskins for 12 seasons and led them to eight playoff appearances, four NFC Championship titles, and three Super Bowl titles. He is well known for his long hours and work ethic in the NFL, and those same values carried over to his NASCAR teams helping there success. After retiring at the end of the 1992 season, he switched focus to his NASCAR team, Joe Gibbs Racing, which has won three championships under his ownership. The first driver for his team was Dale Jarrett (1992–1994), with the sponsor Interstate Batteries. In 1993 Jarrett won the first race for Gibbs by pulling off a win at the prestigious Daytona 500. Jarrett also went on to finish fourth in the CUP points. Jarrett won again for Gibbs in 1994 before leaving to drive for Yates racing. Bobby Labonte then assumed the seat, and claimed three wins in 1994. Labonte's first win for Gibbs would come in the Coke 600. Labonte would drive nine seasons for Gibbs, and would post at least one win for Gibbs in every one of those years. He would have 21 wins, and claim the Cup Championship in 2000. Among them would be wins in the Southern 500 and at Indianapolis. In 1999 Gibbs expanded to a two car team; hiring Tony Stewart to wheel his

second car. Stewart would finish fourth in the points while Labonte finished second. Stewart would finish second in the points again in 2001 and grabbed three wins. Labonte added two more wins for the Gibbs team. In 2002 Stewart crossed the finish line first three more times, and also the CUP Championship (the second for Gibbs). This marked four years in a row a Gibbs driver had finished in the top two in the points chase. Labonte and Stewart both claimed two wins each in 2003, but could muster no better than 8th and 7th respectively in the points. 2004 and 2005 saw Labonte go win less, while Stewart won twice in 2004, five times in 2005, and claimed yet another CUP title for Gibbs.

In 2006 Labonte would depart Gibbs to race for Petty Enterprises. He would be replaced by Denny Hamlin. Hamlin would win twice his initial season, an finish third in the points. Stewart started the season strong, but a series of problems and DNF's right at the cut off to be in the Chase left him outside the Chase. He did rebound during the ten race Chase segment, winning three times, five for the season. Hamlin and Stewart combined for four wins in 2007; and the next season saw Gibbs expand to a three car team, adding driver Kyle Busch. The trio won ten times in 2008, with Busch claiming eight of those. In 2009 Stewart decided to become an owner driver, and teamed with Gene Haas to form Stewart-Hass racing. While driving for Gibbs, Stewart would post 33 wins, on every sort of track on the NASCAR circuit. Although Stewart never won

at Indianapolis while driving in the Indy Car Series; he did post wins there twice driving for Gibbs. Joey Logano was brought on board as Stewart's replacement. Busch and Hamlin won four races each, with Logano adding another. 2010 again saw a Gibbs driver finish second in the points as Hamlin won eight races, but came up just short in the points chase. Kyle Busch also made the Chase finishing eighth and added three wins. 2011 again saw Busch and Hamlin make the Chase, but neither finished better than ninth. Busch did claim four wins, while Hamlin added another. Busch only ran 35 of the 36 races because of an incident in the NASCAR truck series where he intentionally wrecked title contended under a yellow flag. Busch was suspended for one CUP race. 2012 once again saw all three Gibbs drivers claim wins as Logano and Busch both won once while Hamlin visited victory lane five times. In 2013 Gibbs racing again saw a driver swap. Joey Logano

was let go to make room for Matt Kenseth. Logano ended up with Penske Racing, while Kenseth left Jack Roush racing, the only owner he had ever driven for. Logano would grab his first career Cup win while with Gibbs, and add one other win before departing. Gibbs racing made a strong showing in 2013. Hamlin would have a serious wreck; breaking a bone in his back, and miss four races. Hamlin decided to tough it out and return to the race car as soon as possible, but it was clear he was far from 100%. He did appear to return to full form as the season came to a close, and he won the season ending race at Homestead. Busch had a successful season as he made the Chase and had a best career finish (so far) of fourth. Kenseth had an outstanding first season with Gibbs. They clicked from the start, and Kenseth posted seven wins,

and just got beat out for the CUP title by Jimmie Johnson. Gibbs teams continued to be a power house as 2014 opened up; but strong runs didn't convert to victories. Busch and Hamlin won only once each; and after a good initial season with Gibbs; Kenseth went win less. The trio did post 29 top five finished and Hamlin finished third in the points. As in 2013 we saw another long time Roush driver move to race for Gibbs. Carl Edwards would follow team mate Kenseth to Gibbs looking to improve his finishes and he won the Coke 600 at Charlotte and the Southern

500 at Darlington. 2015 also saw Joe Gibbs worst fears realized. He had always had a standing policy that he didn't want his CUP drivers driving in other events because it was possible they might get injured and miss the CUP events. Kyle Busch raced in all three of the NASCAR national touring series and had convinced Gibbs to let him race. In the season opening Xfinity race at Daytona Busch crashed head first into the inside wall and was found to have a massive compound fracture of his left leg, a fracture in his right foot and an injury to his finger. He would miss eight races with his injury. It was thought Busch was out of the hunt to meet the qualifications to compete in the 2015 Chase. Current NASCAR rules required a driver to compete in all CUP races; win and then finish in the top 30 in points; or get in via most points without a win. It was

obvious Busch would have to win and dig out of a large hole since he had zero points when he returned after missing the opening eleven races. This meant he only had 15 races to get a win and get inside the top 30 in points. He won in his fifth race back as the road course in Sonoma. He then won three of the next four races including the Brickyard 400. My the time the cut off race came around at Richmond, Busch was 27th in points and had a cushion so big he was guaranteed a spot in the chase. He advanced out of each round of the Chase into the next and was able to run for the Championship at Homestead. He pulled off the win by 1.5 second over

Kevin Harvick to win the Championship. All four Gibbs drivers would qualify for the Chase; with Kenseth finishing 15; Hamlin 9th and Edwards fifth. During the season the team racked up 14 wins. Busch and Kenseth got two each while Edwards and Hamlin added another two each. All four drivers returned in 2016 and once again all visited victory lane and all four made the Chase. Busch won on four occasions, while Edwards and Hamlin posted wins three times and Kenseth won twice. Hamlin won the season opening Daytona 500 while Kyle Busch once again won the Brickyard 400. As the Chase narrowed down to

the final eight; all four Gibbs drivers were still in the hunt. But bad luck by Kenseth and Hamlin in the final round eliminated them and they finished fifth and sixth respectively. Both Busch and Edwards put up stiff competition early during the Homestead race; but an accident 47 laps into the race eliminated Edwards. As the race wore on Busch couldn't seem to find the handle on his car and finished the race in sixth place; third in the points. Going into 2017, the Gibbs team had a stellar stable of drivers with Hamlin, Busch, Kenseth and Edwards all returning; and all their drivers look to be a title contender for several years to come. But in a surprising move Carl Edwards met with Joe Gibbs and his sponsors in private;

Shortly there after Edwards announced he was retiring from racing. Many questions ensued as to why; at the peak of his career Edwards was stepping away; but his explanation was that he had accomplished most all that he had desired in racing, and it was time to step away and spend time with his family. In a quickly arranged agreement 2016 Xfinity Champion Daniel Suarez would be brought up to the Cup Series to fill Edwards seat. The move worked out smoothly as Suarez had driven the previous season for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series; and even had the same sponsor as Edwards. In 2018, Suarez as he had a season best finish of third; and posted 12 Top 10 finishes. He finished runner up for Rookie of the Year and was Rookie of the Race on several occasions. Meanwhile Gibbs other three drivers all posted wins. Kyle Busch would win on five occasions while finishing second in the Championship. Denny Hamlin would win twice, and

Matt Kenseth would claim a win in the next to last race of the season. Mid-season it was announced that Kenseth contract with Gibbs would not be renewed. It was assumed that a team would want to pick up such a veteran driver. But as the season wound down no offers came. Kenseth said if he found a ride that was good; and if this was his last races; he was OK with that. So it was a popular win as Kenseth got the win at Phoenix. Kenseth will be replaced by Erik Jones in 2018 as he joins the three other veteran Joe Gibbs drivers. Joe Gibbs Racing returned to 2018 as a strong team. With lead driver Kyle Busch; they also had Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez, they expected to have a strong season. Kyle Busch

was impressive. He was one of the best drivers on the circuit and his eight wins tied for the most Kevin Harvick. He had an impressive 22 Top 5 finishes and was in the top ten on 28 of 36 starts. In addition to his eight wins he also had five second place finishes. He added a "major" win to his resume' by claiming the Coke 600 win at Charlotte in May. He easily advanced to the final race to compete for the Championship. He ran near the front all night and final broke into the lead with 36 laps to go. A late race yellow saw Martin Truex beat him out of the pits to steal the lead away. Truex would lead for four laps before Joey Logano blew by and claimed the win and the Championship. Busch ended up fourth. Meanwhile it was a disappointing season for Denny Hamlin. Hamlin had a stretch of 12 consecutive years with at least one win. In fact he had claimed a win every season he had a full time Cup ride. Hamlin came close twice; getting a second place finish at Martinsville

and Dover. Erik Jones got JGR's only other win this season. He pulled off the win at the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July. Daniel Suarez had a disappointing season. In his 36 starts, he only finished inside the top five on three occasions, with a best finish of second at Pocono. At the end of the 2018 season Furniture Row Racing shut down; making Martin Truex available for hire. Furniture Row had been a satellite team for JGR for several years, so JGR hired Truex and his crew chief to drive the #19 car in 2019. This left Suarez without a ride for 2019 and it was unknown where he would end up. On the Xfinity side of things JGR ran two cars full time with Brandon Jones and Christopher Bell at the controls. As I had predicted (in my opinion) JGR put the wrong driver in the #19 car for 2018. He had the option of putting in Ryan Preece, but selected Jones instead. In 33 starts Jones only posed two top five

finishes with a best of second at Talladega. Meanwhile Preece only ran 15 races and grabbed a win at Bristol and added seven finishing inside the top five. It worked out well for Preece in the end as JGR Daugherty Racing recognized his talents and hired him to drive the #47 car full time in the Cup series for 2019. Christopher Bell ran the second full time car for Gibbs, and posted a whopping seven wins, and he was inside the top five on 18 occasions. He ran off three consecutive wins mid-season and easily worked his way through each round of the Chase. At the season finale' at Homestead, Bell was leading as late as 37 laps to go when he rubbed the wall and got slight damage. It was enough to mess up the handling and he ended up finishing 11th. In 2019 Joe Gibbs Racing had a phenomenal season; but it started off on a tragic note. Joe Gibbs son, JD Gibbs died in January following a long battle with a degenerative neurological

disease. JD was Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of JGR. The teams put an emphasis on racing this season to honor JD. Hamlin kicked off the season with a win in the Daytona 500. Kyle Busch would add wins at Phoenix and Fontana CA. Hamlin was back in victory circle at Texas; followed by Busch the next race at Bristol, and the following race Truex won at Richmond. Truex was again in victory lane at Dover and then again in the Coke 600 at Charlotte. As the season wore on it was a parade of JGR drivers going to victory lane. Erik Jones claimed the win in the historic Southern 500 at Darlington. Jones was eliminated from championship contention before the third round; but the other three Gibbs drivers all made it to the championship at

Miami. Truex led almost 100 laps before half way. Kyle Busch didn't lead until lap 87; but between that point and the end of the race he led 120 laps and out ran Truex to claim his second Cup Championship. JGR cars claimed the top three spots as Truex was second and Jones third. For the season the four Gibbs drivers racked up 19 wins in 36 races. They posted 61 Top 5, and 92 top 10 finishes. Meanwhile in the Xfinity Series Gibbs drivers were hard at work collecting trophies too. Kyle Busch ran seven Xfinity races and collected four wins. Christopher Bell and Brandon Jones ran the series full time in search of an Xfinity Championship. Bell was dominant as he got eight wins and 20 Top 5 finishes. Jones broke through for his

first Xfinity win when he captured the checkered flag at Texas. Bell battled at the season ending race for the Championship, but Tyler Reddick had the better car at the end and claimed the Championship. For 2020 all four of Gibbs Cup drivers was back in their same rides. In the Xfinity series Riley Herbst will wheel the #18 full time, while Brandon Jones will return to the #19. Harrison Burton will move up to drive the #20 car vacated by Christopher Bell as he moves up to the Cup series. In the Cup Series, other than Denny Hamlin, the performance seemed to fall off for his drivers. The previous year these same four drivers visited victory lane 19 times. This season Hamlin had seven wins, and Kyle Busch and Truex

only had one win each. Hamlin kicked off the season with another win in the Daytona 500. He racked up a bunch of points winning races and stages and it looked like he would easily use his bonus points to coast into the Championship race at Phoenix. That was pretty much what happened as Hamlin had the seven wins; and added 18 Top 5 and 21 Top 10 finishes. At the season ending Championship race; Hamlin's car just didn't seem to be as good as the other three cars that made the final race. He never led a lap the whole day; and even though he finished the race in fourth; the other three championship contenders all finished ahead of him. Truex won his one race early in the season as he grabbed his victory at Martinsville; while Kyle Busch just couldn't seem to get a handle on his car and have any speed. He stated he missed having practice and a shot to work on the car and dial it in. He made the Chase via points but could not advance out of round two. It was beginning to look like Busch might go win-less and break his streak. Kyle started racing in the Cup Series full time in

2005; and has won at least one Cup race every year. As the season wound down; he had stated he wanted to keep his winning streak going and try to catch Richard Petty with wins in 18 consecutive years. He finally broke through and won at Texas, just three races from the end of the season. This made 16 years in a row with a win. Erik Jones had a rough season. After winning one race each of the previous two season; JGR was looking for this to be Jone's break-out year. But it was not to be. He had a best finish of second at Talladega as Hamlin won; and only had nine Top 5 finishes. About mid-season it was announced that Levine Family Racing would shut down. This was an affiliate team to JGR and they were supporting the efforts of Christopher Bell. Bell had been a driver JGR had been bringing along and now they needed a place to put him or they had to

let him go elsewhere. So they announced that Jones contract would not be extended, and he would be released at the end of the year as Bell assumed that ride. In the Xfinity Series JGR fielded three cars full time and one that ran a hand full of races. Riley Herbst wheeled the #18 car and the season started out good. He made the Chase, but his finishes weren't good once the Chase started. He crashed at Richmond; had a mechanical failure ate Talladega, and after finishing 12th at the Roval; he crash out the next two races. Needless to say he was eliminated before the final race and ended up 12th in points. Brandon Jones won three races driving the #19 car; but a crash at Texas eliminate him from having any chance to win the Championship. He finished sixth in points. Harrison Burton had a good season, winning twice early. In the Chase he finished 22nd at Talladega and then broke a transmission at the Roval which eliminated him from advancing to the

third round. But he finished with a flurry as he won at Texas; and added another win at Martinsville the next week. He finished sixth the next week in the season final event. Daniel Hemric would replace Herbst in 2021 driving the #8 full time. Jones and Burton were back in their cars. 2021 was a fairly good year on all fronts for JGR. All four of their Cup drivers claimed at least one win, but the Cup Championship would elude them. Christopher Bell would get his first career Cup win on the road course at Daytona. Making a late race charge to grab the win. Kyle Busch won twice and just missed making it into the final race to run for the Championship. He finished second at Martinsville, where a win would have put him into the Championship race. Denny Hamlin ran good the whole first 26 races of the regular season. He came out of the box

strong, and except for one event, he finished no worse than fifth in the first nine races. He kept posting great results; but a late run by Kyle Larson saw him steal away the regular season lead. Hamlin righted the ship winning the first race of the playoffs by getting the victory in the Southern 500. When round two started he was again in victory lane, this time at Las Vegas. He made it to the final race to run for the Championship, but didn’t have the speed to get the win. Martin Truex won on four occasions. In the Chase, he too advanced to the final race and had a shot to win. Kyle Larson proved to be too strong at Phoenix and got the win and the Championship. Truex finished second and Hamlin third. In the Xfinity series JGR fielded four cars. One for Harrison Burton, one for Daniel Hemric, one for Brandon Jones, and an “All Star” car driven by several drivers. Joe Gibbs grandson Ty Gibbs ran most of the events in the #54 All Star car as he got seat time to move to full time NACAR racing. The All Star car saw much success, and even young Ty Gibbs was very impressive and

won on four occasions; including his first ever NASCAR start. This was the first time anyone has won in their first NASCAR start, with any starts in the lower divisions. Kyle Busch made five starts in the #54 machine; and promptly parked it in victory lane all five times. John Hunter Nemechek also added a win, as did Christopher Bell. Martin Truex drove it once and finished second. So overall the #54 All Star car posted 11 wins and 17 Top 5 finishes. Meanwhile when we look at the full time cars, we see that Burton had several shots to win, but he just seemed to have bad luck. He had ten Top 5 and 22 Top 10 finishes. He was eliminated from the Chase the race right before the Championship race. He will be leaving the JGR

organization and go drive the #21 Cup car for the Wood Brothers in 2022. Brandon Jones had much the same season as Burton. He didn’t win, but posted eleven Top 5 and 19 Top 10 finishes. He will be back with JGR to run for the Xfinity Championship in 2022. The biggest feel good story in the organization was Daniel Hemric. Hemric has his “usual” season. So many occasions where he “almost” won. He finished second at Las Vegas, Road America and Texas, and posted 14 Top 5 finishes before the series rolled into the season ending race at Phoenix. Hemric had a good car as he and Austin Cindric battle for the win. A late race yellow saw the field bunch up and an overtime finish ensued. Cindric lead as the field took the white flag with Hemric right on his bumper. As the entered the final turn; Hemric bumped Cindric just enough to root him out of the bottom lane and make enough room to stick his nose in. The two came off the final corner side by side and Hemric

would edge out Cindric to get his first career win and claim the Xfinity Championship. For 2022, Hemric went to Kaulig Racing to drive their #11 car in the Xfinity Series. So, we see two young competitive drivers that have gotten out of the JGR stable and gone elsewhere. But we would see Ty Gibbs run full time in the Xfinity series and look for him to be a Championship contender. Brandon Jones was back in the #19. JGR ran four full time Cup teams in 2022; along with three full time Xfinity teams. Christopher Bell had the best season of all the drivers. After getting his first career Cup win in 2021; Bell broke out and won three times in 2022. The first win came at Loudon NH where he outran Chase Elliott by five second to grab the win and lock

himself into the play-offs. When the play-offs started his team was tough as they put up finishes of fifth; third and fourth in the first round. The second round saw problems. At Texas he was involved in a wreck and finished 34th. At Talladega he ran well; but finished 17th. That meant that heading into the cut off race for the end of round two, he was in a must win situation. The Roval saw Chase Elliott have a dominant car; and he was driving away to the win, when a yellow flew with just a couple laps to go. This gave Bell new life; and a shot to advance. On the restart someone spun Elliott out, and Bell was there to pounce. He went on to grab the win and advance to the round of eight. The next round started off much the same, as he was caught up in the aftermath of an accident when Bubba Wallace intentionally wrecked Kyle Larson. Bell finished 34th and even though he finished 11th the next race at Homestead; he still went into the final race of the semi-final round in a must-win situation. His car was off the first part of the race; but his team kept working on it and got it to running fast the second half of the race. He ended up leading 150 laps; and once again won to propel himself into the championship round. At Phoenix, no one had anything for Joey Logano as he would be the driver to claim

the Cup title in 2022. For the season, Bell had three wins, 12 top five and 20 top ten finishes. Denny Hamlin had high hope of getting his first Cup championship in 2022; but things looked bad from the start. He and his team posted poor finishes the first six races of the year. A crafty pit call late in the race saw him get to the lead late in the race, and hold off the rest of the field to get a win. After that; he had more bad finishes for another six races. In the Coke 600, it was a crash-fest and it became a battle of survival. With most of the strong cars eliminated; Hamlin

avoided the chaos and was there to get the win. Things seemed to get a little better over the next few races as the team performed better. At Pocono, he won the pole and ran a great race. He was first under the checkered flag with team-mate Kyle Busch second. However, in post-race tech, it was found that both Hamlin's and Busch's teams had applied some clear tape under the decal wraps on the front fascia that improved the aerodynamics. Both were disqualified and placed last in the field. This would be the first time since 1960 that the winner of a Cup race was disqualified and the win taken away. When the Chase started, Hamlin's team seemed to flip a switch and ran

well. The first round he had a worst finish of ninth; and in the next round had a worst finish of 13th advancing easily forward to the round of eight. In the semi-final round, Hamlin again showed well with a fifth place finish at Las Vegas and a seventh at Homestead. It would be a points race between Hamlin and several other drivers to see who made it into the round of four. On the white flag lap Hamlin was running fourth; and easily in a position to advance to the Championship race. His closest competition on the track was running tenth and there was no way Chastain was going to pass 10 cars on the final lap. Or so we thought... Going into the final turn Chastain eased his car into the outside wall entering turn three; put it in high gear and floored it. He let the concrete wall turn the car, and point it around the track. He zipped past six cars;

including Hamlin and advanced to the final four. Hamlin stood with his jaw on the ground wondering what just happened. Hamlin finish eighth at Phoenix, and for the year had two wins, ten top five and 16 top tens on the year. Kyle Busch also had an interesting season. More for what happened off the track than on it. The first half of the season he ran well and posted good finishes. He backed into a win at Bristol, when they raced on the dirt. Busch was running third going into turn three on the final ap when Chase Briscoe tried to pass leader Tyler Reddick land the two collided and they both spun. Busch was there to steal the win as Reddick finished second. Early in the season M&M's announced that they would be getting out of racing at the end of 2022; leaving JGR

looking for a sponsor for his best driver. The year progressed on, and no sponsor was found. Several more weeks went by, and he decided he couldn't just sit and do nothing. He announced that since JGR could not find him a sponsor, he would go to drive for Richard Childress Racing in 2023. After that nothing seemed to go right for Busch. Many rumored that JGR had no interest in providing Busch with a quality car the rest of the year; even though Busch was his best shot to win the Cup championship. Busch was leading at Darlington the opening race of the play-offs with 27 laps to go. But the car blew a motor running under the yellow. The car never performed the next week at Kansas, and he finished 26th. At Bristol he once again saw a motor expire. In a time when no one hardly ever sees a motor blow up; Busch

had see two motors die in three races. This eliminated Busch from the championship chase. For the year he had the one win, eight top five and 17 top ten finishes. Martin Truex was snake bit in 2022. He had several races he could / should have won, but something always happened to prevent that from happening. From blown tires while leading; to bad pit stops; to even spinning out on pit road; it all happened to Truex. For the year he had four top five and 15 top ten finishes. JGR's Xfinity team fared better. Joe's grandson Ty Gibbs moved up to race full time in the Xfinity series in 2022. He grabbed 7 wins on an assortment of tracks. Gibbs won on the speedway of Michigan; short tracks of Richmond and Martinsville; the road course of Road America, and intermediate tracks like

Atlanta and Las Vegas. He went on to win the season ending race at Phoenix and claim the Xfinity Championship. Unfortunately, that night; his father Coy Gibbs went to bed and died in his sleep. Brandon Jones also ran a full time effort for JGR and he claimed a win at Martinsville. He made the Chase and when the series went back to Martinsville in the fall; Jones was in a must-win situation to advance to the Championship race. As the laps wound down; Jones was hounding Gibbs to pass and get the win. Gibbs slipped up with just a couple laps to go and Jones got by. As they took the white flag, Gibbs fell in behind Jones; and as they entered turn one, Gibbs just drove right 'through' Jones punting him into the outside wall. The fans at Martinsville reigned down a torrent of boos as Gibbs climbed from his car after the win. His actions angered car in the Championship four; they would now only have one;

the fans were upset because of such a poor example of racing; and even Gibbs own team mates were upset. Here they had worked hard all year to make it to the finals; and Gibbs own selfishness had taken away any shot at the Championship. Jones announced after the season he was done driving for JGR and would drive for a different team in 2023. The other car JGR fielded in the Xfinity series was split between a number of drivers. Sammy Smith made the most starts (9) and could have won on a couple of occasions. He ended up with one top five and three top tens. Ryan Truex drove five races, and also had one top five, and three top tens. John Hunter Nemechek made three starts and posted the best finish with a second at

Atlanta. For 2023 Gibbs moved to the Cup Series full time and Smith and Nemechek ran full time in the Xfinity Series for JGR. Martin Truex didn't waste any time making up for his non-winning season. Although it wasn't a points race; he was strong and did win the Busch Clash held at the LA Coliseum. We'll see how his season plays out now that he is off to a good start. As is usual, JGR was a busy place, fielding four full time Cup teams, and three full time Xfinity teams kept the facility busy. On the Cup side Truex and Hamlin would tie for the most wins with three. Truex won at Dover early in the season and added wins at Sonoma and Loudon NH. Hamlin won at Kansas, Pocono

and Bristol. Christopher Bell added two wins when he crossed the finish line first at Bristol on the dirt, and then again at Homestead. Ty Gibbs found that the Cup series was a lot tougher than the Xfinity series when the best he could manage was a fourth place run at the Roval in Charlotte. Bell made it to the championship race at Phoenix to vie for the Cup title; but a brake rotor exploded about 100 laps into the event and sent him into the wall ending his day. Hamlin would fail to have a shot at the championship once again, and finished sixth in points. Truex ended eleventh and Gibbs was 18th. On the Xfinity

side, John Hunter Nemechek and young Sammy Smith raced full time, with a third car split among several drivers. Nemechek had a great season visiting victory lane many times. His first win came in the second race of the season at Fontana, and he won again later at Martinsville. Next, he won back-to-back at Atlanta and Loudon NH; and three weeks later was back in the winner's circle at Michigan. He also won at Kansas and Texas, giving him a total of seven for the year. He had 17 top five and 24 top ten finishes in

33 starts. He advanced through to the championship race, but run into issues there. He led 66 laps, and was leading with 16 laps to go, but ended up finishing 28th on the lead lap; and fourth in points for the year. Not to be outdone, Smith also made a trip to victory lane. He got his win a Phoenix when he out dueled Ryan Truex. Truex would get him a win however, when he drove the shared JGR car. He made six starts, and after the second place finish at Phoenix, he was third at Atlanta. His win came at Dover when he held off Josh Berry to get his first Xfinity win. Truex drove the “All-Star” car and it was split among seven drivers. Ty Gibbs made eight starts, and won at Indy on

the road course, and had five top fives. Denny Hamlin made one start and won at Darlington. JGR has announced that they will expand from three full time cars to four in 2024. For their career Joe Gibbs Racing has had drivers make 3027 starts in the Cup Series. They have accumulated 208 wins and 895 Top 5 finishes. The team has had Cup Championships with Bobby Labonte (2000); Tony Stewart (2002, 2005); Kyle Busch (2015, 2019). In the Xfinity Series their drivers have made 2076 starts and got 204 wins and 708 Top 5's. They had Xfinity Championships with Kyle Busch (2009), Daniel Suarez