Hendrick Motorsports has bagged five race wins and in reply, Joe Gibbs Racing has snagged four wins under their belt. The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season is starting to look like an HMS vs JGR battle after 11 races. It’s outright dominance from the two powerhouse organizations, as they are aiming for ultimate glory- winning the championship.
However, Joe Gibbs and Chris Gabehart from JGR aren’t ruling out a potential comeback by their rivals. Sharing their thoughts after the win at Dover, Coach Gibbs, in particular, highlighted how sneaky the Fords can be. He used the example of the last two seasons’ strong finishes by the Penske teams at Phoenix. Meanwhile, Gabehart stressed how he would like to continue the strong run, despite being in the firing line by their opposition.
Joe Gibbs Racing isn’t ruling out Ford’s comeback
HMS and JGR camp share the nine race wins between them. Trackhouse Racing and 23XI both have a win to their name as well. However, the heavy hitters like Team Penske and RFK Racing from the Ford contingent haven’t turned up. And while JGR is in a comfortable position with two of their four teams having secured the playoff spots, they are very much aware of the lurking threat of their rivals.
“I definitely think there’s other teams are going to step up out there and make their presence felt. I think we have got off to a good start, Hendrick and us, but now I think this is very competitive, and that’s what we’ll see as we go forward,” Joe Gibbs said in post race interview. He also mentioned that despite their struggles, the Ford drivers will turn up, especially when it matters the most. “I also think about last year; we come down to the end. Fords have been off some, and they swept Phoenix so that’s how close this is.”
Moreover, we have seen in the past with Denny Hamlin that, despite his sheer dominance in the regular season, he somehow always came short or struggled to make it to championship four. Gabehart shared the same sentiment, sharing the example of the 2020 season. He also held his ground and stated that he would want to continue on their dominant charge forward. “I know coach has been a part of so many of these situations where, when you’re on top at sports top level, everyone’s shooting at you.”
Acknowledging that their winning phase might come to an end eventually, he further said, “I want it to last forever, and we will work our guts out to make sure it does. And we’ve had a great running as 11 team over the years, but this is not permanent, and it’ll end at some point. We’re just going to work every week to try to keep it from ending.”
Here are the top-performing Ford drivers in 2024
It’s hard to look at the slow progress of the Ford camp when you just glance at the win column for the events. However, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski have been consistent throughout the season. The Penske star has four top 5 finishes, and he did miss out on the win by a fraction of a second at Atlanta. The frustrating part for the No. 12 team is that they just haven’t been able to make the most of the consistent run.
Meanwhile, Keselowski was within touching distance of breaking his winless duck at Talladega, but it was snatched by Tyler Reddick in a chaotic finish. It was the second week in a row that the veteran driver had to be content with a runner-up finish. Like Blaney, he also boasts four top 5 finishes this season, but the two DNF results haven’t helped his cause of being consistent. Not to forget, Noah Gragson has been doing pretty well with SHR and is slowly building steam to deliver that big result.
We have seen teams and drivers overturn their fortunes with a good week of racing. Chase Elliott is the prime example of that, so hopefully the Ford drivers will buckle up and start contesting for wins and solid results.
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