Since 2008, Joe Gibbs Racing has leaned on Toyota’s engines to win two Cup Series championships with them. But that partnership hit a rough patch at Martinsville’s Xfinity 500, where engine woes sidelined playoff JGR drivers Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. Joe Gibbs, a no-nonsense man, didn’t dodge the fallout and faced the engine woes head-on. But these mechanical failures aren’t new in the Toyota garage.

Take the 23XI Racing squad at Pocono back in June, where brake failures affected all three of their drivers: Bubba Wallace, Riley Herbst, and Tyler Reddick. Just the same way how at Martinsville, the three Toyota engines blew up, including Herbst’s in the No. 35. That kind of synchronized heartbreak raises eyebrows, especially with the finale coming next weekend at Phoenix. Gibbs faced this issue head-on, owning the mess the way a true team owner should.

Joe Gibbs spills on the engine breakdown

As the X post of Jonathan Fjeld read, “After three engine failures at Martinsville, including two with JGR entries, Toyota laid out all of the parts and pieces Monday to see what went wrong and to get ready for Phoenix.”

After three engine failures at Martinsville, including two with JGR entries, Joe Gibbs said Toyota laid out all of the parts and pieces Monday to see what went wrong and to get ready for Phoenix. Gibbs said he believes they “made the right decisions” for Phoenix. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/cZcyWa3SnX

— Jonathan Fjeld (@Jonathan_Fjeld) October 27, 2025

Gibbs owned the disaster with no excuses. He talked about the mechanical fixing work that’s in progress in the JGR garage. Martinsville’s mechanical issue is not isolated; it shows a pattern that gave Hamlin his fourth DNF this year, echoing his Talladega throttle issue and Kansas power steering glitch. This is turning his dominant season into a reliability nightmare now as that long-awaited title date is just one race away.

Hamlin didn’t sugarcoat his emotions after the race. He said, “Obviously something major, mechanical. I don’t know, just because the engine simply shut all the way off. If it was a blowup, it’d be the first one that was like that, where, no noises or anything; just the engine actually cut off. But I don’t know. Way too early to speculate.”

These words show Hamlin’s helplessness about what he felt on lap 335, when his engines shut off suddenly. A race should be won or lost by a driver’s skill alone, but the recent mechanical problems show a different pattern. These types of problems show the luck side of the game, where anything can derail the hunt for that elusive title.

With his Las Vegas win that locked him into Phoenix, where he’s averaged 8.8 in the next-gen era. Hamlin held onto his optimism for Phoenix, but these mechanical issues should be fixed once and for all before the finale. And with JGR engineers and Toyota Racing Development working together, a fix must not be very far.

Briscoe, who also registered a DNF at Martinsville, echoed the frustration. “No indication. I was just running around there. I felt really good about coming here and where we were at and racing with [Kyle] Larson there, and went to upshift and something happened. I’m not really sure; it’s unfortunate. We’ll go on to next week, and that [issue] won’t matter anyway.”

Running 14th in Stage 2, his engine quit on Lap 296, a gut punch for him too, who is hoping to win his first title after the Talladega win that locked him in for Phoenix. Luckily, Briscoe’s Phoenix history shines, as he won his first Cup there in 2022 with Stewart-Haas.

Gibbs wrapped up by showing confidence in his decision. “We made the right decisions” for the finale, doing tweaks in the Toyota cars to chase durability and a clean run throughout the race. It’s about admitting a problem and working on the solution rather than ignoring it, and that can only come from raw honesty.

But as Phoenix arrives next week, it’s finally come down to two heavyweight teams against each other.

Gordon eyes HMS vs JGR in Championship 4

Jeff Gordon, Hendrick’s vice chairman and four-time champ, sees the title fight boiling down to a classic between heavyweight teams. With two drivers each from Hendrick (William Byron, Kyle Larson) and JGR (Hamlin, Briscoe), he laid it straight: “Yeah, it’s Penske, Gibbs, and Hendrick that were in this round. You narrow it down to two, which it was going to be. Either one of them was going to be a heavyweight battle, right?”

No matter which two camps out of the Big Three ended up facing each other, the championship fight was going to be intense and high-level, according to Gordon. The Martinsville race saw Byron‘s win revive the No. 24’s legacy, last victorious under Gordon a decade ago, while Larson’s prior title makes him a strong contender as well. But JGR’s duo, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, who have been in red-hot form in the playoffs, cannot be taken lightly either.

Gordon kept it real on the mutual passion, saying, “I mean, we have a tremendous amount of respect for one another. We’ve battled through some big events and championships in the past.” Think back to 2021’s Phoenix thriller, where Larson edged Hamlin for the crown, or the ’90s clashes that defined eras.

Now, Byron’s 10.8 average finish at Phoenix with one win paired with Larson’s 10 top-fives puts HMS‘s duo at an edge against JGR’s speed. Gordon’s take? It’s no cakewalk, as he expects zero room for error in those 312 laps.

He favored his own team in the win prediction, stating, “I feel like our chances are extremely good.” But with Hamlin’s motivation to win his first title and Briscoe’s hunger in the line, this rivalry could crown a new king or hand Larson a repeat glory. Whatever it is, Phoenix never fails to deliver the drama.