Joe Gibbs Racing Demonstrates Championship Depth Chart

[DebWilliams-GFN]

By Deb Williams

BRISTOL, Tenn. (Aug. 22, 2008) – Joe Gibbs Racing's two Nationwide Series teams may have been missing six key members Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, but the organization showed it possesses the depth chart of a NFL Super Bowl champion.

Crew chiefs Jason Ratcliff and Dave Rogers, car chiefs Dorian Thorsen and Richard Bray, and engine tuners Michael Johnson and Dan Bajek were indefinitely suspended by NASCAR for an incident at Michigan International Speedway the previous weekend. During post-race inspection at Michigan, NASCAR officials found a magnetic spacer attached under the gas pedal in the No. 18 and No. 20 cars with the intent of altering the chassis dynamometer test. In the season's first 25 races, JGR cars won 14 races. Many wondered if JGR's victory contending performances would continue at Bristol. After Friday's Food City 250, it was clear JGR had maintained its strength.

Kyle Busch qualified 15 and ran as high as second before having to settle for a seventh-place finish. Rookie Joey Logano, who crashed in qualifying and had to go to a backup car, appeared headed for a top-10 finish as well before an incident with less than 15 laps remaining relegated him to 16th.

“We miss Dave [Rogers] and all the guys back at the shop, and, of course, Jason [Ratcliff], too, on the 18 car, but we have to go on,” Busch said. “We have to do our business here without them. They'll be back soon enough.”

Logano, driving in his 10th Nationwide race, had to start at the rear of the field after wrecking his primary car during Friday's time trials.

After 60 laps, Logano was 31st, the last car on the lead lap. Two dozen laps later, he had advanced to 28th. By lap 103 in the 250-lap race on the high-banked, half-mile bullring, Logano had cracked the top 20. On lap 142, he was 15th.

When the race, eventually won by Brad Keselowski, restarted on lap 212 following the fourth of five caution flags, Logano had fought his way to 10th. Busch held 14th. With 25 laps remaining, Logano was sitting 10th and Busch 11th.

Both were clearly headed for top-10 finishes until the final 15 laps. That's when the left front of Logano's Toyota collided with the right rear of Denny Hamlin's Toyota, causing a severe tire rub on Logano's car. An angry and frustrated Logano had to back off in order to finish the event and settle for a 16th-place finish.

“It was a long race, that's for sure,” Logano said. “We just started behind the eight ball. You start in the back, you work on your car, you start coming to the front and getting track position. Track position is huge and you have a car here and a car there. The car wasn't that bad; it was semi-decent. It was a top-five car, I would say.”

Logano said he didn't know what occurred in front of him that caused everyone to check up, leaving his car with a severely damaged left-front.

“I think someone got loose in front of Denny (Hamlin) and he checked up and I ran into the back of him,” Logano said. “I had nowhere to go on that. It kind of sucks for the whole team, because we were trying to get back up there and now we have nothing to show for it.”