RICHMOND, Va. — Just days after being knocked out of the lead on the last lap by a teammate, Kyle Busch likely will have to play the role of a good teammate at Talladega Superspeedway.
It will be car owner Joe Gibbs’ role to ensure the ripples of Sunday’s move by Carl Edwards are limited.
“I think when something like this happens, I don’t think there’s a game plan for it,’’ Gibbs said after Edwards’ contact moved Busch up the track and allowed Edwards to win his second Sprint Cup race of the year Sunday at Richmond International Raceway.
“You have no real organized way of handling it. What you do is you start out and work your way through it. That’s what we’ll do.’’
If Joe Gibbs Racing hopes to duplicate the dominance it had at Daytona, peace will need to reign. Recall how all four Gibbs cars and fellow Toyota team Furniture Row Racing worked together to control the front of the field, especially late in the race.
They occupied the front five spots heading to the final lap. Denny Hamlin went on to win, nipping Furniture Row’s Martin Truex Jr. with Busch third.
While it will be more difficult to have such control this weekend with Talladega’s wider lanes, that will be the goal again for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota. That could mean that Busch and Edwards will have to work together at times.
“We’ll talk about it,’’ Edwards said Sunday about his bump of Busch. “I can say this, my teammates have been spectacular. They truly have been.
“Yeah, we’re going to have times like this when you’re running like this. We’re racing each other for wins, which is really, really good. So hopefully, it all works out fine.’’
Sunday marked the fifth time since 2007 Busch has lost a race on the last lap. Teammate Matt Kenseth passed Logano on the last lap at Pocono in August when Busch ran out of fuel while leading on the final lap.
Busch’s other last-lap defeats since 2007 include:
- Aug. 2012 at Watkins Glen when Brad Keselowski and Busch made contact while Busch led. Busch spun and Marcos Ambrose got by Keselowski to win.
- July 2009 at Daytona when Busch tried to block Tony Stewart coming to the finish line and they made contact, sending Busch into the wall and Stewart to the win.
- July 2007 at Daytona when Jamie McMurray nipped Busch at the line after a side-by-side duel.
Busch kept his feelings to himself after Sunday’s race at Richmond, but should he get revenge against Edwards in the future, Edwards’ crew chief, Dave Rogers, says they’ll understand.
“There’s going to be plenty of days that (Busch) is faster than us and they’ll probably get to our back bumper and move us,’’ Rogers said. “We’ll go down to Victory Lane, shake their hands, tell them, ‘Good job.’ That’s just a testament to Joe Gibbs Racing, allowing us to put ourselves in that position.’’
— After contending for the win in Saturday’s Xfinity race at Richmond, Justin Allgaier’s race ended after contact with Brennan Poole in the final laps. Allgaier finished 35th.
Allgaier, who is seventh in the points, is in his first year at JR Motorsports. Team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. likes what Allgaier has done this season after moving over from HScott Motorsports in the Cup series.
“Man, I’m going to tell you, he’s been a real surprise,’’ Earnhardt said of Allgaier. “Let’s be honest, it’s hard to get a measure of what he had running on the Cup side over the last couple of years, where that program is, where the car is, where the communication is, where he is. So it was a bit of a gamble.
“We have been pleasantly surprised with his speed, his personality with that team, what he’s done to sort of bring that group together. He’s got a real level, good personality, always positive. That does wonders for that team.
“(Allgaier and crew chief Jason Burdett) get along good, and they run great. Their cars are always one of the fastest cars we have at the track each week. I challenged the other teams to compete with Jason and his group.’’
Allgaier finished 30th in the Cup points last year at HScott Motorsports with one top-10 finish in 36 starts. He was replaced this season by Clint Bowyer, who is 29th in the points this season with one top-10 finish.
— In the first two weekends of heat races in the Xfinity Series, dominance has been the theme. Each of the four heat races has had one driver lead all the laps. Will NASCAR need to make changes to the heat races? Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, addressed that question Monday on “The Morning Drive.”
“I think it’s important to know what that format is about, and it’s the emphasis on the Xfinity Series drivers and certainly the leader going flag-to-flag, we’d like to see more passing, but if you look at those who are eligible to compete for the Dash 4 Cash have really been mixing it up on the race track,’’ he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“This was something that we put together at four races that we wanted to see how we could improve on it each and every race. We’ll get through the four this year and look at what improvements we can make.’’
— Joe Gibbs Racing seeks its fifth consecutive Sprint Cup victory this weekend at Talladega after Kyle Busch’s wins at Texas and Martinsville and Carl Edwards’ wins at Bristol and Richmond. The last time a Cup organization won five points races in a row was 2014 when Hendrick Motorsports did it with Jeff Gordon (Kansas), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Pocono) and Jimmie Johnson (Coca-Cola 600, Dover and Michigan).
— Kasey Kahne’s fourth-place finish Sunday was his first top-five result since Kansas last fall and just his fourth top-five finish in his last 45 races, dating back to the start of last season.
— Chase Elliott finished 12th at Richmond. He’s placed 12th or better in five of his last six races.
— Carl Edwards is the only driver to place in the top 10 in each of the three short-track races (Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond).
