{"id":1314596,"date":"2019-09-13T18:04:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T00:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/joe-gibbs-has-a-heavyweight-lineup-in-nascars-playoffs\/"},"modified":"2019-09-13T18:04:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T00:04:01","slug":"joe-gibbs-has-a-heavyweight-lineup-in-nascars-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/joe-gibbs-has-a-heavyweight-lineup-in-nascars-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Gibbs has a heavyweight lineup in NASCAR\u2019s playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Drivers who qualified the NASCAR Cup Series playoff pose on the the start\/finish line following the Brickyard 400 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo\/Darron Cummings)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Joe Gibbs has a powerhouse lineup leading the NASCAR playoffs, with four drivers laser-focused on winning the overall title. If there is a favorite in this 10-race tournament, it would be one of Gibbs\u2019 guys.<\/p>\n

Only the championship isn\u2019t decided on regular-season strength, and is instead a calculated series of three-race segments in which a driver need only advance. The goal is to qualify for one of the four slots in the Nov. 17 finale, where the winner at Homestead-Miami Speedway will claim the Cup.<\/p>\n

Joey Logano was the dark horse spoiler a year ago, when he snatched away the title Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. had set their sights on as the strongest drivers of the regular season. The so-called \u201cBig 3\u201d walked away empty-handed, shocked that a season\u2019s worth of work meant nothing in the final run of the year.<\/p>\n

The domination this year has been at Joe Gibbs Racing, which combined for 13 wins in 26 races. Busch is the regular-season champion, Denny Hamlin the Daytona 500 winner and Truex is trying to win a second title in three years. Erik Jones, meanwhile, is fresh off a Southern 500 victory and a contract extension with Toyota\u2019s flagship organization.<\/p>\n

All four expect to be racing for the title at Homestead, and the organization will undoubtedly have fallen short if it doesn\u2019t advance at least two drivers to the final four.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t win a championship, it\u2019s disappointing,\u201d Busch said. \u201cI\u2019ve been to the Homestead race four years in a row and I\u2019ve only won it once. I don\u2019t know if that is a little LeBron James-esque (three NBA titles in eight chances), but it feels like I can get there and just can\u2019t seal the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The playoffs begin Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a 16-driver field that is cut by four after every third race. The JGR group has some early breathing room based on bonus points earned in the regular season. For example, Busch opens the playoffs with a 45-point lead over Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman, the lowest-seeded drivers in the field.<\/p>\n

The strongest challenger to Gibbs is likely Kevin Harvick, who was fast all season but couldn\u2019t get to victory lane until late July. Harvick has since won three of the last seven races, including a Brickyard 400 victory last Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

But Stewart-Haas Racing, despite qualifying three of its four drivers for the playoffs, isn\u2019t as strong as it was a year ago in part because it took the organization longer than expected to adapt to the 2019 rules package. Harvick, on a wave of momentum, believes his team is ready to race for a title.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to just hammer away, race by race,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the backup plan is to survive and advance. But we want to win. We want to be racing for the lead and trying to win stages and be aggressive. You have to adapt and adjust as the weeks go by but it is definitely an aggressive, one week at a time approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Team Penske trio of reigning champion Logano, former series champion Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney is formidable; only Keselowski and Logano could keep pace with the Gibbs group early this season. Logano believes he is among the favorites this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel better about this year than I did last year, for sure,\u201d Logano said. \u201cIt almost doesn\u2019t matter who the favorite is because it can change in the matter of a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports, led by Chase Elliott, got three of its four drivers into the playoffs. The exception is glaring: Jimmie Johnson didn\u2019t make the field and won\u2019t race for a record eighth championship. It\u2019s the first time in 15 years of this format that Johnson did not qualify.<\/p>\n

Elliott is consistently the strongest of the Hendrick group \u2014 challenged consistently in the Chevrolet camp by Chip Ganassi Racing playoff qualifiers Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson \u2014 but this year is joined by longshot title contenders Alex Bowman and William Byron.<\/p>\n

Byron made it into the playoff field with crew chief Chad Knaus, the architect of Johnson\u2019s seven titles who was moved this year to run that program. It\u2019s helped the second-year driver find consistency as Hendrick continues with a rebuild of its organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s given me that platform to be organized and be direct and really tell him what\u2019s on my mind,\u201d Byron said. \u201cHe\u2019s given me that ability to not take feelings into account and just kind of say whatever is on our minds. He made that barrier come down really quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notes: The playoff field is comprised of drivers from six organizations, with Newman of Roush Fenway Racing the only driver without a team in the field. \u2026 Ford has seven drivers in the playoffs, while Chevrolet has five and Toyota the four Gibbs entrants. \u2026 After the oval in Las Vegas, the first round of the playoffs moves to the short track at Richmond, Virginia, and then an elimination race on the hybrid road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drivers who qualified the NASCAR Cup Series playoff pose on the the start\/finish line following the Brickyard 400 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo\/Darron Cummings)AP | AP LAS VEGAS \u2014 Joe Gibbs has a powerhouse lineup leading the NASCAR playoffs, with four drivers laser-focused on winning the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 10:29:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}