Joe Gibbs Racing

The Big One wreaked havoc on the 2019 Daytona 500, but Denny Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing emerged as the winners of a crash-filled finish to the Great American Race on Sunday.

Hamlin―who dedicated the 2019 season to the memory of J.D. Gibbs, a co-founder of the team―crossed the line in front of teammates Kyle Busch and Erik Jones.

Retweet to congratulate @dennyhamlin on winning the 2019! #DAYTONA500@JoeGibbsRacing | @DISupdates pic.twitter.com/hHIASyPUDM

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 18, 2019

Hamlin reflected on his second career Daytona 500 win with appreciation for the entire Gibbs family.

Denny Hamlin: "The whole family, they've just done so much for me over my career. This is for J.D....his legacy still lives on through Joe Gibbs Racing"

— PRN (@PRNlive) February 18, 2019

But the victory certainly didn't come easily. Not only did Kyle Busch and Joey Logano push Hamlin to the finish, but the final 10 laps also included three major incidents.

The Big One came first.

On Lap 191, Paul Menard clipped Matt DiBenedetto's right rear and caused a 22-car pileup that led to a red flag.

WELP pic.twitter.com/09xqeRkCkC

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 17, 2019

DiBenedetto led a race-high 49 laps but watched his Daytona dreams disappear in the Big One. Still, the No. 95 driver chalked up the unfortunate collision to nothing more than racing.

"It's just a racing deal." - DiBenedetto on the big one which contact from Menard brought out the red flag.#Daytona500 | #NASCAR

— Luis Torres (@TheLTFiles) February 17, 2019

Menard's team, Wood Brothers Racing, sent out an apologetic tweet for the driver's role in the crash.

Just gonna throw this out there and then call it a day. Nobody hates this worse than we do. We were on the receiving end last weekend and it sucked just as bad. Paul races cleaner than anybody and we sure hate to have been all up in this one. Real sorry it ended this way

— Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) February 17, 2019

Defending champion Austin Dillon was part of the wreck and eventually crossed the line in 16th. Other notables caught in the carnage included Ryan Newman (14th), Ryan Blaney (31st), Aric Almirola (32nd) and Martin Truex Jr. (35th).

Four laps later, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. unsuccessfully tried to split Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick. The drivers had been eyeing top-10 finishes but only Larson (seventh) managed one.

On the ensuing restart, Clint Bowyer tried to pass Michael McDowell but cut up too soon and turned directly into William Byron and Chase Elliott. The crash also involved Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski and Landon Cassill and sent the race to overtime.

Apparently only top five cars don't have any damage:

1. Denny Hamlin, coming off winless season, looking for second 500 win
2. Kyle Busch, has never won the 500
3. Joey Logano, last year's Cup champ
4. Michael McDowell, no career Cup wins in 285 starts
5. Ryan Preece, rookie

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) February 18, 2019

Hamlin, Busch and Jones led Logano and McDowell to the checkered flag. Ty Dillon, Larson, Ryan Preece, Jimmie Johnson and Ross Chastain rounded out the top 10.

The wild 10-lap finish trailed a relatively tame 190.

An early crash removed Kurt Busch from contention. Then with 41 laps to go, Cody Ware hooked BJ McLeod―two drivers five laps down―while heading toward pit road and slammed into Tyler Reddick, Stenhouse and Johnson.

Well that was interesting. pic.twitter.com/bMzWjQGU3X

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 17, 2019

Seven laps later, a caution for debris reset the field. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Jones were in front of Hendrick Motorsports drivers William Byron and Alex Bowman.

On the restart, though, Jones lost fuel pressure and cost the Hendrick teammates dearly. Bowman and Byron fell at least 10 spots apiece, and the drop effectively ensured the duo would be trapped in the Big One and other late crashes.

Kyle Busch and Blaney both picked up an additional 10 points by winning Stages 1 and 2, respectively.

The NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series continues Sunday, Feb. 24, with the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

J.D. Gibbs, the son of legendary Washington coach Joe Gibbs, died at the age of 49 on Friday as the result of "complications following a long battle with a degenerative neurological disease."

Joe Gibbs Racing announced the news via Twitter.            

He was a co-founder of Joe Gibbs Racing and served in a number of capacities, from tire-changer to driver to president and co-chairman.

Gibbs made 13 NASCAR national series starts from 1998 through 2002, and while his driving career did not take off, he took his experience in stride.

"My dad, he fired me in a nice way," Gibbs said in 2014, per NASCAR.com's Zack Albert. "He gave me an office and said, 'Hey, you're now the president, because you're a horrible driver.'"

Per Albert, Gibbs' health became an issue in 2014. It was revealed in March 2015 that he was receiving treatments for his disease, which was limiting brain function, including speech and processing issues.

Doctors determined the cause of the disease to be "head injuries likely suffered earlier in life," according to ESPN's Bob Pockrass.

Along with his career in NASCAR, Gibbs was a quarterback and defensive back at the College of William & Mary from 1987 through 1990.

NASCAR veteran Matt Kenseth announced Friday that it is unlikely he will return to Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2018 Cup Series season.

According to ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass, Kenseth said the following without providing further information on the news: "I do not think I will have the option to race for JGR next year, unfortunately."

The 45-year-old Kenseth is currently 11th in the points standings, but since he has no wins and five drivers behind him have won races that will count toward the playoffs, he is in danger of missing out on the Chase.

Kenseth has 38 career Cup Series wins, is a former Cup Series champion and finished fifth in the standings last year.

The driver of the No. 20 car said he currently has no ride lined up for the 2018 campaign:

"I haven't really worked on anything real hard [for next year]. ... I don't really have anything to talk about for what I am doing. At this point, I don't have anything going on for next year. ... I'm not really worried about it. As of today, I do not have a job for next year, so I certainly hope to still be racing. I think I've got some wins left in me and hopefully can race for championships. Right now, my focus is on finishing up this year."

Per Pockrass, Joe Gibbs Racing is expected to replace Kenseth with youngster Erik Jones next season, and while it is unclear where Kenseth will go, taking over for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports is a possibility.

Kenseth has been part of Joe Gibbs Racing since signing with the organization prior to the 2013 season after a six-year run with Roush Fenway Racing.

Joe Gibbs has enjoyed success on both the NFL sidelines and as a NASCAR team owner. 

Gibbs won three Super Bowl titles as head coach of the Washington Redskins, and as team owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, he has overseen four Sprint Cup championships and now two Daytona 500 victories following Denny Hamlin’s win Sunday. 

With a narrow margin between the best and the worst after a three-month offseason when every team is focused solely on preparation for the 500, Gibbs appreciates how difficult it is to claim a win in the Great American Race, admitting Monday that it's just as hard as winning the Super Bowl, per Bob Pockrass of ESPN.com:

It says in this sport, professional sports, how hard it is. That’s the reason why it means so much when you do it. We came here with real good cars, real good teams and worked real hard at it.

The thing about Daytona is you spend so much of your offseason [on it]—it's crazy, why would we dedicate that much time? But it's such a big deal. You spend all that time and resources and everybody working on things, and then you come down and have something happen.

Gibbs, who also shared last year’s Sprint Cup title with Kyle Busch, went 23 years between wins in the Daytona 500—the last victory being Dale Jarrett with a Chevrolet a year after the organization was founded.

Gibbs and the rest of the team celebrated in the same fashion they did in 1993—with a visit at a Steak 'n Shake in Daytona Beach, Florida, bringing the Harly J. Early Trophy in tow, as shown by Joe Gibbs Racing:

"Yes, that's the REAL #Daytona500 trophy." 😂🏁☝️ #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/66YI17F6ZQ

— Joe Gibbs Racing (@JoeGibbsRacing) February 22, 2016

If Hamlin hadn't won, Gibbs might’ve reached Victory Lane with another of the three cars he had running in the top five in the final turn Sunday. 

Hamlin maneuvered teammate Matt Kenseth out of the way and up the track to power through on the final turn, and Busch finished third, riding right behind when the two made contact. 

Courtesy of NASCAR, here is a look at the final lap of Hamlin’s narrow win, which at 0.01 seconds marked the closest finish in Daytona 500 history:

All four Gibbs cars qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup last year, and Hamlin already took a big step in securing his playoff berth with Sunday's victory. 

Team	Wins
Richard Petty Motorsports	288
Hendrick Motorsports	244
Roush Fenway Racing	135
Joe Gibbs Racing	130
Richard Childress Racing	105
Wood Brothers	98
Team Penske	95
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates	45
Stewart-Haas Racing	30

Now in his 11th full season, Hamlin has won a race in each year he’s competed and is among the top drivers on the circuit. Before Sunday, he had no championships or Daytona 500 victories to his name, but now that he’s scratched off one major milestone, he should be in the thick of title contention later this year to possibly give Gibbs his fifth Sprint Cup championship. 

Getting Joe Gibbs to boast is about as easy as getting Rush Limbaugh to be quiet.

He doesn't do it often. Not even with a superb quartet of Toyota drivers, one of whom is the reigning Sprint Cup champion. Not even after another, Denny Hamlin, won the Daytona 500 eight days after winning the Sprint Unlimited. Not even after his drivers finished first, third, fifth and 14th, respectively, and the one who was 14th led until the final lap.

TRD president David Wilson calls #daytona500 America's greatest race. The state of Indiana outlaws the Camry. @IndyCar

— brant james (@brantjames) February 21, 2016

For Gibbs, it has to be hard to remain humble, but he fights the good fight. A good deal of evidence exists to suggest that he is an exceptional leader. How else could a man who once coached three Super Bowl-winning football teams, with three separate quarterbacks, run the best team in NASCAR?

"I was a technical person in football," Gibbs said after Hamlin's victory. "I loved that, calling the plays, being in the middle of the storm, hurricane ... Over here, when the race starts, they disconnect my radio and I walk around with cords dragging on the ground."

Gibbs makes a good warm-up act for his winning driver, whichever one it happens to be from week to week. His presence is calming. He tries to depict his team's relationship with its sponsors as only slightly less intimate than his with the Lord.

"The Lord has blessed us with a great experience today and we're going to enjoy it," Gibbs decreed, though there were no reports of thunderous approval from on high.

This refreshing throwback to an America of county fairs and malt shops is liked in the same way as Ike. His racing empire is on top, and the last thing Gibbs wants to encourage is recognition of that lofty occupation.

En route to an one one-hundredth-second victory over Martin Truex Jr. in a non-Gibbsian Toyota, Hamlin bulled his way past a teammate, Matt Kenseth, with dispatch that was a bit untoward. Gibbs assured everyone that bygones will be bygones.

"I really just kind of wanted to listen to him (Kenseth) because you don't know if he's really upset or what," Gibbs said. "Matt is the consummate teammate. He knows how to handle things."

Based on the events of last year, Joey Logano might quibble with that assessment, but that was then and this is now.

"He was not upset," Gibbs said further of Kenseth. "He was matter-of-fact. He said, 'Man, I was wanting to be the guy that got this for you.' We had a good talk. He didn't really refer to anything that happened in the race or anything."

There you have it. Gibbs quoting Kenseth as saying everything is swell.

Directly, what Kenseth said was, "Well, I didn't get a photo finish, so I was back in Turn 3 somewhere. No, if I can't win, I want my teammate to win. That's what being teammates is all about is getting everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing running good and we did today. Those guys (Hamlin's) got the finish. I didn't, unfortunately."

On @NBCSports: The choices that defined the 2016 Daytona 500 for @dennyhamlin ... and @mattkenseth. A column https://t.co/SCPDRbFPP4 #nascar

— Nate Ryan (@nateryan) February 22, 2016

All's well that ends well. Plenty of potential victories remain to spread around. Kenseth, Cup champion Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are like yapping puppies waiting for their strips of beef.

All four drivers are reliable and tested. All have come close to winning championships. Kenseth and Busch have won titles, albeit 12 years apart. Winning the Daytona 500 isn't much of a predictor of the champion, but winning it has the effect, for now, of lifting Hamlin to the top of the pecking order.

Years	Appearances	Wins	Poles	Titles
1992-present	1,880	129	91	4

Most of the race was a chess match. The end was a Tilt-A-Whirl at one of those county fairs Gibbs conjures up. Hamlin, like those around him, was waiting from fifth or sixth place for a time to pounce. His lightning-quick, spur-of-the-moment moves were better than everyone else's...

By eight to 12 inches.

"It's crazy," Hamlin said. "It happened so fast. I literally had to watch it back (i.e., see a replay) to figure out what in the world happened."

The rival armies limp on to Atlanta while Hamlin's triumph will be toasted from coast to coast.

One imagines Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick, brooding in private while his teams assess and repair Daytona damage. The average finish was 25.5. The average sheet metal was dented.

One race, not even one as big as the Daytona 500, does not make a season. Almost every year, someone who runs well in the 500 virtually disappears for the rest of the year. Only one other track, Talladega, resembles Daytona in terms of its controlled lunacy.

Atlanta, as overlooked as it may be in the luster of what just happened, will offer a more focused concept of what lies ahead.

What Joe Gibbs Racing achieved in Daytona Beach was no fluke. No question marks lie ahead at any track. His team has only fleeting mastery. Hendrick, Penske and Stewart-Haas aren't far behind. It's too early to tell where the outcome of the fresh season lies, be it driver, team or manufacturer.

What's not too early to tell is that JGR has picked up where it left off, and the owner takes it upon himself to make double-darn sure no one gets a big head.

Follow @montedutton on Twitter.

All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.

Denny Hamlin won the Sprint Unlimited for the third time. The race was filled with thrills, chills, wrecks and cellophane bags. Hamlin drove a Toyota. A Ford driver, Joey Logano, finished second, and Paul Menard drove a Chevrolet to third.

Would suggest moving the Sprint Unlimited to Charlotte, would pull a lot more Fans and less plastic bags/paper. Yep!

— The Colonel (@CMSColonel32) February 14, 2016

Perfect, right? Not exactly.

The Sprint Unlimited, which, for the record, is limited—25 drivers, in this particular case—but isn't, by title, an all-star event. In NASCAR official terminology, it's often referred to as "a special event," like the Pixley Catfish Festival or something. The official Sprint All-Star Race will be run for little reason, too, on May 21 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The race that began in 1980 as the Busch Clash has been reduced to a trial run.

"I was joking with Denny in the winner's circle," owner Joe Gibbs said in the post-race media conference. "I said, 'It's the 500, OK, not the Shootout [a former name].' I says, 'Try to get us a 500, will you?' It's been 23 years since we were able to win one."

Hamlin's first words into a media-center microphone were, "Obviously, it's short enough for my attention span. That's all I can think of."

Gibbs and Hamlin both said it was "a big, big deal for us," but, again, it was the Daytona 500, coming up on Feb. 21, about which they were talking.

Six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson has crashed out of the last four Unlimiteds, which, in his case, are a reference to misfortune. He has finished no better than 11th in his last seven.

Predictably, Johnson said, "I don't want any luck in this one. I want it all next Sunday."

Leader	Denny Hamlin	Brad Keselowski	Jamie McMurray
Finished	1	9	14
Started	15	2	24
Status at End	Running	Running	Running
Laps Led	39	26	14

Let the record note that the Clash/Shootout/Unlimited was not always irrelevant, obsolete and outmoded. Once it had a vibe of adventure. All the pole winners—the fastest at every track!—raced together for NASCAR's overhyped version of a land-speed-record run. Daytona Beach might as well have been the Bonneville Salt Flats 30 years ago, at least in terms of stock-car equivalence.

It didn't hurt that Dale Earnhardt, the patron saint of hard chargers, was as indomitable as the power his trusty Lumina, or Monte Carlo, seemed always to provide. Earnhardt, killed in a Daytona 500 crash 15 years ago, won the Clash six times.

This one was a good race, particularly for fans who love crashes and owners who have plenty of money.

As runner-up Joey Logano said afterward, "It seems like this race can go either way. It can be complete chaos, or kind of a snoozer, and [tonight] was complete chaos."

An estimated $2.5 million in damages occurred from six crashes that each involved at least two cars. What's that familiar cliche? What goes around comes around? The winner, Hamlin, was in the first one. The last spurred overtime, but Hamlin didn't have to weather a green-flag finish because the rest of the field couldn't play nice long enough to allow it.

Ten wrecked cars tonight with no points and nothing on the line but pride. Estimated price tag: A minimum of roughly $2.5 million. #nascar

— Nate Ryan (@nateryan) February 14, 2016

The once-experimental race has been left behind. NASCAR is trying out its new gimmicks—a caution clock in Trucks, heat races in Xfinity, etc.—elsewhere. The current rationale for keeping the Unlimited is that, until next year when Sprint leaves Cup, the money is there. Other than that, it's, "What's up, guys? Let's go take a spin."

Seldom is it a good sign when post-race discussion centers on litter. On a windy night, it often looked as if ghosts were zipping out of the wheel wells. Ten thousand fans didn't go to Publix on the way to the track. Ten thousand fans didn't go to the track at all. Some thought the trash was construction leftovers from Daytona International Speedway's recently completed refurbishment.

"It looked like a landfill on the front straightway," Logano said, which was not what track officials were looking for as an evaluation of their lavish renovations. 

What Greg Biffle observed from 10th place described the night. Pretty good. All except for the crowd, which was obviously pretty bad.

"It was pretty good. Our car was pretty fast. These things are getting harder and harder to pass. They are all the same speed. We are two and three wide, and you can't really do anything. The car drove good though."

Pretty good.

"We got in some trouble there early and had the side ripped off," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "They won't let you race without door foam, and apparently, I guess maybe you have to have the door on, as well."

Inspectors are such sticklers, and Earnhardt Jr. is such a kidder.

"It's kind of nice just to knock the rust off," Logano said. "Let the guys make a pit stop or two, and let my spotter and I kind of get used to running a draft again and make sure we remember everything.

"I didn't forget everything, so that's good."

Now let's all get fired up for the Daytona 500! Who's with me? Aaaii, yiiyyaaiihh, hoooo-weeeee!

Follow @montedutton on Twitter.

All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.

By the end of the Sylvania 300, the die was cast. Reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick was out of options and fuel. The driver who dominated the New Hampshire Motor Speedway race gambled that he could make it 88 laps, and couldn't.

Matt Kenseth, who had pressured him, won the second race of the Chase.

The Stewart-Haas Racing team that painted itself into a corner will move on to Dover, Delaware, with only one option left. Harvick must win at Dover, where he has never won before. Tweeted Harvick:

Things haven't gone exactly to plan but I promise you one thing "we will not quit" #itaintover

— Kevin Harvick (@KevinHarvick) September 27, 2015

"With four or five [laps] to go, I didn't think I could quite get to him and get by him," Kenseth said in the winner's media conference. "Getting to him and getting by him were going to be two different things, too, but I didn't think I was quite going to get there.

"Honestly, [crew chief] Jason [Ratcliff] told me [Harvick] was going to be close and he was probably going to run out, but I didn't 100 percent believe him, so I was a little surprised when I saw him pull down with [three laps] to go."

The tactics might have worked had there been more than one remaining caution period after Harvick last pitted on lap 212 (of 300). The wonder was that the driver who led 216 laps had to resort to a futile gamble in order to win it.

Harvick declined to discuss the matter after the race.

Arithmetic doesn't favor Harvick. Twelve drivers advance to the second of four rounds. Dale Earnhardt Jr., another Chevy driver who ran out of gas near the end, is now 12th. Harvick, ranked 15th of 16, is 23 points behind Earnhardt. Winners of all three races advance. Denny Hamlin, who won a week ago at Chicagoland Speedway, is in. So is Kenseth.

Driver	Points	Wins	Present Position	Points +/-
Matt Kenseth	2,099	5	Clinched	N/A
Denny Hamlin	2,093	2	Clinched	N/A
Carl Edwards	2,089	2	In	+33
Joey Logano	2,089	3	In	+33
Jimmie Johnson	2,083	4	In	+27
Ryan Newman	2,074	0	In	+18
Kurt Busch	2,073	2	In	+17
Brad Keselowski	2,072	1	In	+16
Martin Truex Jr.	2,071	1	In	+15
Jeff Gordon	2,068	0	In	+12
Jamie McMurray	2,058	0	In	+2
Dale Earnhardt Jr.	2,057	2	In	+1
Kyle Busch	2,056	4	Out	-1
Paul Menard	2,056	0	Out	-1
Kevin Harvick	2,034	2	Out	-23
Clint Bowyer	2,018	0	Out	-39

The only way Harvick can plausibly advance is to win at Dover, where he has failed to win all 29 of his career starts. He did, however, finish second to Jimmie Johnson at the mile track on May 31.

As the laps wound down, Harvick held off a double-play combination from Joe Gibbs Racing, first Hamlin, who couldn't catch him, and then Kenseth, who took up the chase. The dogged pursuit kept Harvick from saving enough fuel to nail down his first victory since March 15.

Harvick wound up leaving with his title hopes caught in a 21st-place trap. Once he and crew chief Rodney Childers settled on trying to make it to the end, they had no other option. Had Harvick stopped for fuel under the green flag, he might have finished worse and certainly only a few positions better.

Kenseth thus became the season's first five-race winner and gave Joe Gibbs Racing, and Toyota, their ninth victory in the last 11 races. Joey Logano won the other two in a Ford. Earnhardt gave Chevrolet its most recent win at Daytona on July 5.

For the moment, Toyota is dominating the sport, sort of like Chevrolet for most of the past four decades.

"When you have fast race cars, and I've been asked a number of times this year what's different, and the answer is everything is different," Ratcliff said. "Every department has been working really hard.

"The race cars are fast. The engine program is phenomenal. The pit crews are...it's just all of it. And when you have that, you open lots of doors for lots of opportunity, and I think that's why you're seeing success in a lot of different ways."

Gibbs has four teams. Two have clinched an advance into the next round. Carl Edwards, who won the pole in New Hampshire and finished fifth, is almost a cinch. Kyle Busch crashed, but he goes to Dover just a point behind Earnhardt at the cutoff.

For what was surely the ninth time in 11 races—and, quite possibly, all 11, at least to someone—Gibbs said "This is a thrill for us."

At the moment, Joe Gibbs Racing has thrills galore. It's a thrill a minute. Thrills and, for most of those not currently driving Gibbs Toyotas, chills.

"Hey, it's great to be a part of something like this," the longtime Washington Redskins coach, NFL Hall of Fame member and three-time NASCAR Cup champion as an owner also said.

Gibbs is one predictably enthusiastic guy.

Kenseth expressed the view that Harvick running out of fuel was his own doing.

"Do I take responsibility for him running out of gas? No. Absolutely not," Kenseth said. "I was out there trying to win the race, and trying to catch him and pass him, so I don't know what his situation is.

"Obviously, I ran as hard as I could to get as close as I could to him because i wanted to beat him, and the faster he has to go, obviously, he burns more gas."

Dover marks the end of what NASCAR refers to as the Challenger Round. Twelve drivers advance to the Contender Round, which will be contested in Charlotte, Kansas City and Talladega. Eight will remain for the Elimination Round in Martinsville, Fort Worth and Phoenix. Then the championship will be settled between four finalists in Homestead, Florida, on November 22.

Big names—Harvick, Earnhardt and Kyle Busch, in particular—must excel at Dover in order to advance. Said Earnhardt:

I got no explanation for how our day ended. Started great though. Great car. We are a team. We win, lose, and even run out of gas TOGETHER.

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) September 27, 2015

Busch figures to be next line to give Coach Gibbs a thrill.

Adam Stevens, his crew chief, said, "Sure, Dover is a strong track for us.

"There's no reason we can't go there and have a good day. Things like this [crashing due to tire failure in New Hampshire] happen. They happen to us and they can happen to anybody else. It's not a win-at-all-costs situation at all, which is comforting."

The Chase format guarantees uncertainty, rewards victory and deals harshly with misfortune. Someone prominent is going to fall by the wayside next Sunday, and more will follow. It's just the way it works.

Follow @montedutton on Twitter.

All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.

Denny Hamlin has won five Sprint Cup races at Martinsville Speedway. That alone hardly made for an STP 500 surprise.

The picture was bigger. A slumping driver did not alone this portrait paint.

“This team gives me great race cars,” Hamlin said on Fox Sports 1 from Victory Lane. “It’s a great organization, one that gives me the car to do it.”

In the post-race media conference, Hamlin added, “We had a great car after Saturday [practice] that we [thought] was capable of winning. It had the feeling it needed to have, and we just had a race where things worked out for us.

“It wasn’t scripted by any means, all the adversity we had to go through, but really, the last 60, 70 laps played out how they needed to play out for us to win.”

But his win Sunday at The Paperclip was about more than just finding Victory Lane again for the first time since May of last year.

Much more. 

As race day dawned, Joe Gibbs Racing, flagship of Toyota’s NASCAR fleet, was taking on water and running its bilge pumps. Hamlin’s victory was not only his first in 31 races, it was also Gibbs’ first, and Toyota’s first, in that span. By the standards of the driver, the team and the manufacturer, it was a break from the bleak.

Driver	Starts	Wins	Poles	Top 10s	Avg. Finish
Carl Edwards	6	0	0	0	20.0
Denny Hamlin	6	1	0	3	16.5
Matt Kenseth	6	0	0	3	16.7
David Ragan	5	0	0	1	16.8
Matt Crafton	1	0	0	0	18.0
Totals	6	1	0	7	17.5

Gibbs’ son, J.D., is the president of the team and, in effect, shares total responsibility for its performance with his father, the Hall of Fame football coach who now makes his living running race cars and has been doing so for more than two decades.

The younger Gibbs is suffering from a mysterious medical condition, one involving the processing of mental activity. No one seems to know what caused it. Past concussions could be at least in part responsible.

Though news of his problems only broke last week, Gibbs said in a Sunday morning media statement at the track that it has been a concern for some time.

“Basically, his situation medically, there [are] very few answers,” Gibbs said of his son. “We’ve been dealing with this for about six months, and basically what the doctors say is that they really don’t know. J.D. has lived a very active lifestyle.

“All the things that he’s done in his life physically—he’s loved all sporting events, and it’s everything from football to snowboarding, racing cars, racing motor bikes—he’s lived in a lot of ways for him, and he loved all those things. We can’t point to one serious thing that happened to him. Certainly, any injury is a possibility that led us into some of the symptoms he’s experiencing now.”

So there was that. And then there was Kyle Busch, the star driver who is out indefinitely with multiple leg fractures. The replacement, David Ragan, finished a creditable fifth in what was supposed to be Busch’s No. 18.

“This sport is a humbling sport,” Gibbs said in the winner’s media conference. “It shows you how hard it is. We work hard, extremely hard, and yeah, it’s been a long time since we won a race.

“Denny and the guys, David [Rogers, Hamlin’s crew chief], really overcame a lot. ... When you win one, it’s a humbling experience that you really want to enjoy, and we’re going to do that this week.”

Pretty sure @dennyhamlin just helicoptered over me on his way to filet Mignon dinner as I sat in my 13th place Taco-bell drive-thru.
💩head

— Clint Bowyer (@ClintBowyer) March 30, 2015

A powerful, historically successful team, with an all-star cast of drivers—Busch, Hamlin, 2003 champion Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards—had loads of problems off the track in addition to the more orthodox ones associated with failing to win races.

Hamlin had won for the 24^th time in his Sprint Cup career on May 4, 2014, at what is essentially the anti-Martinsville, Talladega Superspeedway, which is long (2.66 miles), high-banked and fast compared to Martinsville’s short (.526), flat and slow. The pole winner for Sunday’s race, Joey Logano, averaged 98.461 mph. At Talladega nearly a year earlier, Brian Scott’s speed was 198.290.

The triumph of Hamlin and the Gibbs team over adversity wasn’t the day’s only item of significance. Kevin Harvick’s streak of eight straight races finishing first or second, dating back to the final three races of 2014, ended with a comparatively disappointing eighth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Oh7HGgRIY

California winner Brad Keselowski gave himself a modest streak of two such finishes by following Hamlin across the line.

Danica Patrick produced her best finish of the season in seventh.

The Gibbs Toyotas finished first, fourth (Kenseth), fifth (Ragan) and 17^th (Edwards). All but Ragan led laps. Combined, they led 115 laps, 91 by the winner.

Furthermore, in a conclusion that has become far too foreign in the sport, the ending was exciting. Keselowski’s Ford got close enough to Hamlin’s Toyota to nudge it a bit out of shape coming off the final turn.

“My hat’s off to Brad,” Hamlin said on Fox Sports 1 afterward. “He had an option, and he took the latter.”

One assumes the former would have been wrecking Hamlin and winning by means of it.

“I just couldn’t quite complete the move to make the pass,” Keselowski said on the telecast. “It’s the best we’ve ever been here...and a good time to get it going.”

“It’s hard to be disappointed with a top-five, but we had a car capable of winning,” Kenseth added. “[It was] a disappointing ending, but [I’m] thankful we finished good. Denny is a big reason I can even run in the top 20 here.”

Hamlin said, “Even though it doesn’t cure things, it makes things better, and what this does for our race team in particular is that we’ve got some kinks in our team right now, but...this allows you, this buys you months of time to get everything worked out and get all the kinks worked out, because we know we can go on a championship run.

“Joe raised his voice, which doesn’t happen very often, told us to get off our tails and go to work, and we all did it, and [it’s] a great result for our race team.”

Hamlin had to overcome a pit-road penalty—a tire escaped the crew’s control during a stop—and drive back to the front. He took the lead from Kenseth on Lap 473 and led the final 28 laps.

As Gibbs may have told his Washington Redskins a time or two en route to three Super Bowl wins, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.

Three Super Bowl rings and three NASCAR Sprint Cup rings are all within the championship world of Joe Gibbs. Coach Gibbs has delivered plenty in the NFL, and in NASCAR, he and his motorsports team have performed significantly as well.

When NASCAR announced an elimination format in January for its Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff, team owner Gibbs was among many others pondering the change. It was obvious that NASCAR wanted to focus on winning, but the implementation of the adjustments had unknown consequences.

Coach Gibbs recently shared his surprise about the unexpected intensity. 

"I think for all of us when we heard that it was so radically different—it was so different that I don’t think we knew what to expect," Gibbs said. "So when we all get in there, we get in the 16. I found out that’s as much pressure as you can get in a three-race playoff." 

Any change any place will often create resistance. That’s human nature. It often takes familiarity with the impact of the changes for people to decide if they support it.

Quite simply, the new Chase had to go through three elimination rounds and to the finale before fans and officials could assess the results. For many fans, it will require even more time and experience. 

Brian France, CEO and chairman of NASCAR, commented on the early impact. 

"Even though the format is relatively simple," France said, "what we're all finding out is the strategies that are associated with competing in this new format are different, and they're unknown and untested."

Gibbs assessed elimination results after experiencing the new format.

"I think it’s put the interest level way up," Gibbs said. "For an owner, it’s a lot of pressure. You go three races, and you’re holding your breath, and then you go three again. It’s a lot to go through. We said it’s going to take wins—it really took being really consistent.”

France emphasized the essence of NASCAR racing that plays well with elimination changes.

"Everybody has got a right to have their own style of driving out there," France said. "If you go through NASCAR's history, that's what we're about. I say it all the time: Late in a race, we expect—there are limits and lines, but we expect tight, tight racing that sometimes will have some contact. It's in our DNA." 

Kevin Harvick, the 2014 NSCS champion, was honest in a recent teleconference.

"It's probably going to end up shortening my career," Harvick said. "It's definitely been probably some of the most stressful 10 weeks I've had to deal with in my racing career just because of the intensity that it's created."

NASCAR and Brian France have to be happy with the results of their new format. They sold out Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the final race was exciting. In time, it’s likely more fans will take to a playoff scheme that will sometimes take out favorite drivers.

The season message for NASCAR on how the elimination experiment functioned, like the final four drivers charging for the last checkered flag of the season, might be described in four words.

The NASCAR DNA worked.

Harvick summed it up well.

"It was very easy to follow, and in the end you knew how those cars finished: That was going to be your champion, and that was going to be your top four in the points," Harvick said. "I think the racing world has enjoyed it, and that's what it's all about in the end."

FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of topics by Dwight Drum at Racetake.com. Unless otherwise noted, information and all quotes were obtained firsthand or from official release materials provided by sanctioned and team representatives.