KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Cooler heads have prevailed inside Joe Gibbs Racing following last week's run-in between teammates Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs, whom Hamlin wrecked when Gibbs wouldn't get out of his way at New Hampshire.
Hamlin is in the playoffs and racing for an elusive first Cup Series championship, while Gibbs, the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, is not eligible to race for the title. After the two had on-track contact, Hamlin asked on his team radio if the organization was too scared to give the 22-year-old team orders.
Hamlin said Saturday, a day before the middle race at Kansas Speedway in the round of 12, that all sides had an opportunity to speak their mind in this week's competition meeting. The three-time Daytona 500 champion declined to elaborate other than admitting that, by moving Gibbs out of his way, «I definitely got too hot under the collar, and it went too far on my end.»
«There are things I should have done differently,» he said.
JGR teammate Christopher Bell said the message was clear and didn't even need to be spoken as to how the Toyota drivers should be racing each other at this time of the year. There are six races remaining to crown the Cup champion.
«We shouldn't wreck each other. That was very clear and blatantly wrong and hopefully doesn't happen again,» Bell said. «I think it already was clear to us before, and we just need to respect each other.»
JGR driver Chase Briscoe, meanwhile, won his seventh pole of the year to lead the field to green Sunday at Kansas. He will start alongside Hamlin. Briscoe's seven poles are the most in a single season since Kyle Busch in 2017.
Briscoe and Hamlin will likely race clean at the start, which Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson, who has three of
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