Heather Gibbs, Adam Stevens assess JGR title hopes
Heather Gibbs says falling short of the Cup Series title would be a disappointment for JGR, while Adam Stevens sizes up the No. 20 team against Denny Hamlin's No. 11.
Video Transcript
Heather, it's very clear the Toyotas, particularly Joe Gibbs Racing, have an advantage.
Everybody's picking one of the drivers, it seems like, to win the championship.
So organizationally, when you look at this, if you don't win the championship this year, is it gonna feel like a missed opportunity?
I think absolutely.
I mean, I think we've worked so hard as a team and as an organization to be consistent and have four competitive cars.
And obviously points are, you know, coming, showing up every week, just as Christopher has, you know, having all those top twos where it's criticized and I'm That's, that makes a championship caliber team, to be consistent.
So I think absolutely it'd be a disappointment.
I mean, we need to capitalize on points.
Stage points obviously is huge.
It showed up tonight and, so yeah.
And then Adam, we, we hear a lot about Denny Hamlin, and it seems like that team doesn't really have much of a weakness unless they have a little bit of bad luck.
How do you compare the 20 versus the 11 straight up?
That's great.
You know, that's a great question.
That- it's a great barometer.
You know, I have a lot of respect for Denny as a driver and what he brings to the program, and how much he understands his car, and how his effect on his, his balance and his setup and how he uses his tires, and he does such a good job elaborating that in our competition meetings.
You know, he's, he's a rare breed in that regard, from the way that he grew up and as long as he's been, been doing this.
So thankful to have him in our stable.
And I We've learned a lot from him.
A- and you know, Gale's been around forever.
We've kinda come up the, through the ranks, similarly and, you know, they, they just, they don't have any weaknesses, and a lot of that is from the experience and the strengths o- of Denny.
You know, he's been able, through his, time, to turn his weaknesses into strengths.
You know, Dover might be an example, a place where he was historically terrible and now he's, easily one of the best there.
So, in that regard for us, you know, I didn't think we were ever gonna go through this year, prior to the start of the year or even the start of this weekend, without winning a race.
A- and, that being said, I didn't have Darlington o- on my schedule circled as one that was at the top of the list.
You know, it Historically for us, we haven't been the best.
We've been competitive on occasion, and we've missed it big on occasion.
And, you know, to come out of here, first race of the playoffs, second race, first race, yeah, first race, sorry, to, with a win and run as good as we did all, all night, feels really good.
And, and I know that we're gonna be one of the cars to beat in the next handful of weeks.
