Denny Hamlin is in. He was the first of the three from Joe Gibbs Racing to make the final four. Chase Briscoe is in. He survived Talladega. And Christopher Bell is in; well sort of.
He’s the highest ranked playoff driver who hasn’t got a win, one of a group behind Hamlin and Briscoe vying for the final two spots at Martinsville Sunday. And if Bell makes it, that gives JGR three of the final four in the race at Phoenix which will determine the 2025 NASCAR Cup champion
And Bell is in pretty good shape. First off, he’s pretty strong on the short tracks, like Martinsville. And second, because of the way the playoff points are structured, even if he doesn’t win at Martinsville he’s so far ahead in points it will be difficult for anybody to catch him, and if he finishes second he’s guaranteed the last spot in the final four.
And that would give Joe Gibbs Racing three contenders vying for the 2025 NASCAR Cup championship in next week’s race at Phoenix. The last spot could go to Hendrick’s Kyle Larson, right behind Bell in points, or maybe Penske’s Ryan Blaney, one of the sport’s most underrated drivers (despite winning a championship) and the Penske team leader despite all the talk about Joey Logano.
So what does that mean for JGR? How do you handle a situation where all three playoff drivers, assuming that’s the case, are going for one trophy and all of them are working out of the same shop?
“I don’t think it will be any different because at JGR you compete for wins against your teammates all the time,” Briscoe, the team’s most recent winner with the victory at Talladega, commented according to NASCAR’s website.
“If I’m going to go against anybody I hope it’s them because I feel like at the end of the day, if one of us can’t win it then we hope the other guy does, right?” Briscoe said.
“I hope Bell gets in because it would be a huge thing for our company to have a three-in-four shot. And I feel good about Chris going into Martinsville,” Briscoe continued.
“Hopefully he can get in. Hopefully all three of us can be going for it (the championship). That would be a pretty special thing. Hopefully, we don’t screw it up.”
And Briscoe knows it can be screwed up because he watched it happen during the playoff race at Kansas. JGR and Toyota had the race firmly in control, with Hamlin dominating, until the end, when one-by-one, the Toyotas started taking each other out.
On the last two restarts, Bell was in the front row when he got run up the track by Bubba Wallace, also in a Toyota, once the green waved with both going for the win.
Briscoe, right behind Bell and with a shot at the checkers, had to check up once Wallace slapped Bell and Bell slapped the wall, losing his momentum and taking him out of contention.
That left Hamlin and Wallace charging toward the finish, but in turn three Wallace and Hamlin bumped, allowing Chase Elliott to slip underneath them and win the race
So Elliott sneaked off with the win. And the others? Well, Hamlin was second, Bell third, Briscoe fourth and Wallace fifth. That’s really good, really close. But close doesn’t count except in horseshoes and it certainly doesn’t count in playoff racing.
So what about the season-ender at Phoenix? Well, in the first race there early this year, Hamlin won and Bell was second. Briscoe, new to JGR, was still figuring out how to drive a super fast car, which he now knows how to do.
So you’ve got to figure one of them has a very good chance to win the championship – if they can figure out how to get to the finish line in one piece.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Martinsville: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Denny Hamlin. First race winner at Martinsville: Hamlin. Top five in first race at Martinsville: 1-Hamlin, 2-Bell, 3-Bubba Wallace, 4-Chase Elliott, 5-Kyle Larson.
Old Guy Sport Talladega picks: No picks. Talladega is a super speedway race and OGS does not count super speedways in its standings because the winner is determined primarily by luck and avoiding the “big wreck.” OGS season record: 13-14, .481, no Pocono pick.
OGS competition index top 10 after 28 races: 1-Hamlin 652 points, 2-Chase Briscoe 507, 3-Larson 490, 4-Bell 473, 5-Blaney 409, 6-Shane van Gisbergen 368, 7-William Byron 364, 8-Elliott 244, 9-Wallace 186, 10-Joey Logano 185.
OGS competition index top 10 on short tracks (tracks similar to Martinsville): 1-Hamlin 211, 2-Blaney 166, 3-Bell 161, 4-Larson 137, 5-Briscoe 122, 6-Byron 110, 7-Joey Logano 96, 8-Brad Keselowski 80, 9-Alex Bowman 74, 10-Josh Berry 65.
