Joe Gibbs Racing emerges as championship favorite after first-round sweep

Whether it's winning three Super Bowls or five NASCAR Cup Series championships, Joe Gibbs knows how to guide his teams to success through internal turmoil. So when Christopher Bell angrily called out his No. 20 crew last week for questionable strategy during a 24-race winless streak, Gibbs let the emotions run their course rather than step in to defuse the tension. "I've been on the sideline and heard some outbursts," Gibbs said. "We've had some outbursts in our competition meetings in racing. I've learned when you're around sports, and things don't go your way, that's going to happen every now and then. "I let them handle it. I really do." With his fourth victory this season, Bell reaffirmed Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway that that's a winning philosophy for Joe Gibbs Racing, which completed a first-round sweep of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at the Tennessee short track. Bell, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe have won three consecutive races to stamp the team as the championship favorite. JGR's four Toyotas led a combined 757 of 1,107 laps in the first round of the playoffs, which were cut from 16 to 12 drivers at Bristol with seven races and three rounds remaining. "We've got fast cars right now," Gibbs said. "I think it just says a lot for the way we feel back at the race shop. It's a big deal all the way across the board for us. It really means a lot." His hands-off approach won Cup titles with hot-tempered Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. Bell is mild-mannered by comparison, so he made headlines with a vulgarity-filled tirade on his team radio for losing "with the best car every week" after a seventh place at World Wide Technology Raceway. He had only praise Saturday for his team and crew chief Adam Stevens, who deftly managed Bell's pace and tactics over 500 hazardous laps at Bristol as many teams struggled with excessive tire wear on the 0.533-mile oval. Charging from fourth to first on a late restart, Bell led the final four laps and held off Brad Keselowski for his 13th career victory. "Winning fixes everything, that's for sure," Bell said. "It's a huge morale boost for the team and myself as a driver. "I got really frustrated last week because we had an opportunity to win, and we didn't. We've had several opportunities to win throughout the summer, and we didn't. Every week, we can do it, and while I was frustrated with the calls last week, Adam nailed every call this week. Tonight was just a perfect example of everybody doing the right things." Though Bell won the All-Star Race exhibition in May, Bristol marked his first Cup points victory since March. After a 31st-place crash in the Daytona 500 season opener, he won three consecutive races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Circuit of the Americasand Phoenix Raceway, which will be the site of the Nov. 2 championship race. Stevens reminded his driver that the No. 20 Toyota often came close to winning during the drought. "It felt like a long time because we've had such good speed between now and then," Stevens said. "That's inherently frustrating when you can't capitalize on it. The reasons why you're not capitalizing are probably week to week, and it just comes down to execution and qualifying a little better and having track position late in the races. "We're all big boys trying to do a hard job, and we have every tool and every piece of the puzzle to do it." The three tracks in the second round set up well for Bell, who has wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. He also has a series-best four poles at Kansas Speedway and a runner-up finish in May at the 1.5-mile oval. "We are in a really good spot right now, the Toyota group, and specifically Joe Gibbs Racing," Bell said. "But we've got a long way to go to get to Phoenix, and it's going to be a hard road." Tricky tires NASCAR released an extra set of tires halfway through the race, which featured a season-high 14 caution flags and 137 laps run under the yellow — the most at Bristol since 167 caution laps in the July 25, 1965, race. Many incidents resulted from drivers misjudging gaps because of massive disparities in lap times with a less durable right-side tire whose speed diminished rapidly. "It was just chaotic," regular-season champion William Byron said. "From around 10th on back, there were just people running into each other." There had been no issues with tire wear during Friday afternoon practice, which had crew chiefs such as Stevens strategizing for being able to run more than 100 laps on a set of rubber. But temperatures dropped into the low 60s Saturday night, and the conditions caused excessive wear after 30 laps. No driver went past 85 laps before pitting. "I would have bet my house that it was going to be a normal Bristol race, but they're working hard to make the tires wear out," Stevens said. "By golly, I think they hit it this time. That was shocking. God help us all because if we're going to see this every week, that's going to shorten the careers of some people." Agonizing wait continues After leading a career-high 201 laps, Ty Gibbs settled for 10th after botching his pit entry on a green-flag stop with 65 laps remaining. The grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs remained winless through 116 starts in the Cup Series. "This sport is really hard, and I keep telling him patience," Joe Gibbs said. "Two races ago, he said: 'Coach, will you quit using the word patience. I don't want you to use it ever again.' So patience is out the window. We're trying to win here. I just think he knows this is what he's wanted to do his entire life, and so he's after it." Hitting the road Despite four wins on road and street courses in the regular season, Shane van Gisbergen was eliminated in the first round with three consecutive finishes of 25th or worse. The Trackhouse Racing rookie, who is inexperienced on ovals after winning three championships in the Australian-based Supercars series, placed 26th at Bristol after spinning twice. "It's a privilege to be here but also pissed at myself," van Gisbergen said. "The last few weeks I just haven't been good enough. I've been really doing well getting better at ovals, and I just haven't performed the last couple of weeks. I blame myself at the moment but thanks to the Trackhouse team, we've had an awesome year." ___ AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing