The Cup season is finally heating up as the sport makes its way to the second half of the regular season. With 12 more races remaining, NASCAR fans are waiting patiently to find out the drivers who will make it into the Playoffs.  But before that, the drivers have to be in full-throttle mode.

However, not everything looks fine at the Joe Gibbs Racing camp. Their star driver stole the show back in Kansas, by snatching the victory from Hendrick Motorsports’ speedster Kyle Larson. However, before the team heads to the Playoffs, the drivers, especially Denny Hamlin, have to face the road tracks—their Achilles heel.

Crew chief of Denny Hamlin reveals their hurdle as the team heads into the second half of the season

Speaking about the second part of the season and their strategies, the crew chief of Denny Hamlin Chris Gabehart laid bare their weak point as a Cup Series team. He revealed it on the latest episode of the MRN Crew Call podcast. 

When asked about how he feels as the team heads towards the summer season with the races at the Sonomas and Nashville by the hosts, the crew chief expressed, “I do think we’re still in the spot as #11 team, where we execute at the level we are capable of winning every week, any track course that we go to, with the exception of road courses. We have some work to do there and we know it.”

He also added, “Fortunately, Tyler Reddick ran really well at COTA, so as Todd knows, any time you get a bogey in the camp, you can study how they do business and try to improve it. Really helps.

“So we are looking forward to the road course program and try to improve. When you talk about oval races and all these tracks that are coming up. It is exciting for us every week we really do feel that it gives us a chance to go compete for a win. And all you can ask for is a chance.”

He humbly accepted the fact, “I think there are a lot of teams, people out there who aren’t as fortunate I don’t take that lightly. I know how lucky we are to be on that boat. And it’s something I enjoy each and every week.”

The three-time Daytona 500 winner, who won at Coca-Cola 600 last year, broke his winless drought this season at Kansas. But as his crew chief accepted, road courses have always been a roadblock for the team since the Next Gen cars rolled out.

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The statistics from the past season at Sonoma are a testament to that fact. The team failed to get into the top-25 last year at Sonoma. This also led to the president of Toyota calling it an “embarrassment.” Even with a different setup, the race at Road America did not bring favorable results for the team, with Martin Truex Jr leading the team by securing a 13th place.

Even the team’s former driver Kyle Busch had revealed the fact, “But I would say both road course events so far this year were not our strong suit. Why we missed it? I don’t know. If I could answer that, we wouldn’t struggle, we wouldn’t have been bad. But talking to Martin Truex [Jr], who tested for us at (Watkins Glen International), certainly not looking forward to going to The Glen either. They weren’t very fast there.”

Even with the roadblocks, the team will surely do their best to bag a win and secure their chances of grabbing another seat in the Playoffs. As the crew chief revealed, it’s all about the chances, that the team can seize to prove their position as a powerhouse of talents in the Cup Series.

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