Joe Gibbs Racing is off to a challenging start this NASCAR season, with car issues affecting several drivers, including NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin. Apart from Christopher Bell’s three-in-a-row victory, Kevin Harvick pointed to the lack of competitive pace in Las Vegas, and Chase Briscoe’s overturned penalty, which spared JGR a hefty $100,000 fine, only added to the turbulence and “pressure.”
Speaking on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, the NASCAR star suggested that JGR must focus on consistent, clean, and flawless racing, ensuring the team does everything right before working on strategies to gain positions. Listing the car issues from last weekend, Harvick said:
“I think that this is the first weekend I mean all the Gibbs cars were not as fast as they needed to be.
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“At one point three of the last five cars were the 54, 11 and the 19. Now 19 had a wheel fly off. 11, he had the speeding penalty. But he never really passed a car. So they definitely had some issues.”
Explaining the challenges further, Harvick pointed to the mounting pressure on the teams, particularly Briscoe, and stressed that they must remain consistent in their approach to get back on track. He said:
“There’s so much pressure on these guys to go out and win, and Briscoe’s, he’s kind of in that same boat now. They got out of the penalty, and I think that was obviously fair. But being able to get some consistency is how you get back on track and that’s where both of those teams need to be.”
He added:
“I think that the 19 has been super hit or miss with everything that they’ve had going on and working through. I thought that they, with Daytona, and I thought at The Clash, it’s just not firing.”
Speaking on the strategy that will help JGR and Briscoe rise to competition, Harvick suggested a “back to the basics” approach before aiming too high. He explained:
“I think the biggest thing in those scenarios is let’s just have a day, wherever we finish, where we don’t screw anything up. If we’re going to run 25th, let’s just run 25th all day and have good pit stops, have good restarts, do all those things that it takes to complete the day. Then let’s come on home and talk about what we need to do next week.
“And let’s go next week and wherever we run, wherever we unload, let’s get down pit road correctly, let’s get all the tires tight, and let’s not make any mistakes all day and come on back home and see if we can do that two or three times in a row. Back to the basics.”
NASCAR heads to the Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for the Straight Talk Wireless 400.
