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Sprint Cup
CUP: JGR Drivers Swap Cars At Michigan
Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin drove each other’s cars in practice at MIS...
Kyle Busch (Left) and Denny Hamlin (Right) confer at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Frustrated with the performance of their Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas, teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch swapped cars during Saturday morning’s practice for tomorrow’s Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
With the approval of NASCAR, Busch ran 10 laps driving the No. 11 FedEx-sponsored Toyota in the morning session, while Hamlin turned 15 laps in the No. 18 Interstate Batteries car Busch normally drives.
Hamlin won the June Michigan race, but so far this weekend the team has struggled badly. In the opening round of practice Friday, the three JGR entries of Joey Logano, Hamlin and Busch were 29th-31st, respectively.
Later on Friday, Busch qualified 18th for the Carfax 400, Logano 20th and Hamlin 33rd.
In Saturday’s opening round of practice, Logano was 10th, Hamlin 17th and Busch 19th. For a team with seven victories on the season — including the first Michigan race in June — these were not the results the team was looking for.
Hence, the swap.
“Basically just seeing what you can learn from two guys that can be competitive in different things with similar stuff,” said Mike Ford, Hamlin’s crew chief, when asked why the swap took place.
“It’s good to see if those comments are real and see what we can learn from it,” Ford added. “It’s a test over time so when you bring the same car back and you didn’t progress over that time and then you see other guys that did progress, it gives you a benchmark of how far you need to work.”
Dave Rogers, Busch’s crew chief, was enthusiastic about the experiment.
“Sometimes we have our drivers meetings and on paper we look at our setups and we listen to what our drivers say and sometimes it doesn’t correspond,” said Rogers. "Mike (Ford) and I are sitting there trying to figure out if its car differences or driver differences. What’s the deal? We just talked about it and said it would be really neat to switch drivers and just see what they feel.”
On Friday, the drivers made it clear they weren’t happy.
“Other teams that are behind are constantly working to try to get better than that, so you have to keep working,” said Hamlin. “That’s why it’s so hard in our sport to stay on top is that it is so competitive. It’s not like it was 10 years ago where really five or six cars were going to win week in and week out. Now it’s 15 cars that could win or 18 cars on any given week. It’s tougher nowadays to stay on top than ever.”
Busch said his team is behind.
“We’re missing a little bit,” said Busch, who has not finished higher than eighth in the last eight races. “There’s something there that we just don’t have yet. It seems like it’s speed most weeks. We can get the cars driving OK, they’re just not going anywhere. We’re not driving up through the field. ... It seems like when you get up towards the front — seventh, eighth, 10th — you kind of stall out. It’s like you have to jump the hurdle to get to the top three in order to really see what your car’s got.”
The swap didn’t seem to make much difference in the final Happy Hour practice, where Logano was 15th, Hamlin 24th and Busch 28th. Still, Rogers said it was a worthwhile exercise.
“I think we would definitely consider doing it again,” Rogers said. “As we work on our car a little bit and the 11 (Hamlin) works on their car a little bit, you start to go down different paths. Then sometimes you ask yourself, ‘If I just put their setup in the car, would it work?’ There’s always those days where one team is off and the other team is up front. Can you just go put your teammate’s setup in it verbatim and feel comfortable racing? I think when you do things like this, it tells you whether you can or can’t.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
With the approval of NASCAR, Busch ran 10 laps driving the No. 11 FedEx-sponsored Toyota in the morning session, while Hamlin turned 15 laps in the No. 18 Interstate Batteries car Busch normally drives.
Hamlin won the June Michigan race, but so far this weekend the team has struggled badly. In the opening round of practice Friday, the three JGR entries of Joey Logano, Hamlin and Busch were 29th-31st, respectively.
Later on Friday, Busch qualified 18th for the Carfax 400, Logano 20th and Hamlin 33rd.
In Saturday’s opening round of practice, Logano was 10th, Hamlin 17th and Busch 19th. For a team with seven victories on the season — including the first Michigan race in June — these were not the results the team was looking for.
Hence, the swap.
“Basically just seeing what you can learn from two guys that can be competitive in different things with similar stuff,” said Mike Ford, Hamlin’s crew chief, when asked why the swap took place.
“It’s good to see if those comments are real and see what we can learn from it,” Ford added. “It’s a test over time so when you bring the same car back and you didn’t progress over that time and then you see other guys that did progress, it gives you a benchmark of how far you need to work.”
Dave Rogers, Busch’s crew chief, was enthusiastic about the experiment.
“Sometimes we have our drivers meetings and on paper we look at our setups and we listen to what our drivers say and sometimes it doesn’t correspond,” said Rogers. "Mike (Ford) and I are sitting there trying to figure out if its car differences or driver differences. What’s the deal? We just talked about it and said it would be really neat to switch drivers and just see what they feel.”
On Friday, the drivers made it clear they weren’t happy.
“Other teams that are behind are constantly working to try to get better than that, so you have to keep working,” said Hamlin. “That’s why it’s so hard in our sport to stay on top is that it is so competitive. It’s not like it was 10 years ago where really five or six cars were going to win week in and week out. Now it’s 15 cars that could win or 18 cars on any given week. It’s tougher nowadays to stay on top than ever.”
Busch said his team is behind.
“We’re missing a little bit,” said Busch, who has not finished higher than eighth in the last eight races. “There’s something there that we just don’t have yet. It seems like it’s speed most weeks. We can get the cars driving OK, they’re just not going anywhere. We’re not driving up through the field. ... It seems like when you get up towards the front — seventh, eighth, 10th — you kind of stall out. It’s like you have to jump the hurdle to get to the top three in order to really see what your car’s got.”
The swap didn’t seem to make much difference in the final Happy Hour practice, where Logano was 15th, Hamlin 24th and Busch 28th. Still, Rogers said it was a worthwhile exercise.
“I think we would definitely consider doing it again,” Rogers said. “As we work on our car a little bit and the 11 (Hamlin) works on their car a little bit, you start to go down different paths. Then sometimes you ask yourself, ‘If I just put their setup in the car, would it work?’ There’s always those days where one team is off and the other team is up front. Can you just go put your teammate’s setup in it verbatim and feel comfortable racing? I think when you do things like this, it tells you whether you can or can’t.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
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