Can Team Penske slow Joe Gibbs Racing?

LOUDON, N.H. Joey Logano won’t concede anything to Joe Gibbs Racing as NASCAR’s Chase heads into its second race Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It doesn’t matter that JGR has won nine of 12 Cup races, or that JGR drivers such as Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch have almost literally won while racing with one leg.

“I feel like we’re right there with them,” said Logano, who drives for Team Penske and won the 2014 Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire. “They’re strong, but I don’t look at them as stronger than us. They just have more numbers out there.”

Logano is right about that: JGR has been doing it with quantity and quality this summer. Each of Gibbs’ four drivers Busch, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Hamlin have won at least two races this season and all of them are in the Chase. Busch returned after an 11-race absence because of a broken leg and foot and promptly won four of five races. Hamlin, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee three weeks ago, won last week at Chicagoland Speedway.

“It’s not two cars that are doing it,” Logano said of JGR. “It’s all of them, which is impressive. You don’t see many teams that can put four cars together running fast.

“When you’re racing against four cars that are very, very fast and they’re all pretty much equally matched with speed, that’s what makes them look like they’re the next level. It’s not just one car that’s doing it. It’s not two cars that are doing it. It’s all of them.”

Two-car Team Penske, which includes Logano and Brad Keselowski, has more than held its own this season, though. Logano has victories at the Daytona 500, at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) and at Bristol (Tenn.). Keselowski has won just once (at Fontana, Calif.), but has 10 consecutive top-10 finishes (tying a Chase-era record) entering New Hampshire.

So, if there’s a team that might be able to slow JGR’s momentum, it might be Penske.

“We’re fighting with them every weekend for wins,” said Logano of JGR. “So I don’t think we have to take a step back and say, ‘Oh my God, we’re doing something wrong. They’re so much faster than us.’ They’re not faster than us. There are a lot of circumstances that obviously have to go just right to win these things. I feel we have the speed in our race cars, so we’re not far off at all.”

Another of NASCAR’s power teams, Hendrick Motorsports, has struggled for much of the season with no victories from drivers Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne since Earnhardt won at Daytona in July.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the title will come down to the Gibbs Toyotas or Penske’s Fords, at least not according to JGR’s Kenseth.

“I don’t know about that,” Kenseth said. “Last weekend, you saw the Chevys show up with a lot of speed that we haven’t seen lately. (Kevin Harvick) and (Kurt Busch) were unbelievably fast. (Jimmie Johnson) was way better than he’s been the last few months. So you just don’t know.”

And, besides, the tenor of the season has changed, with the Chase one race old and tempers already having flared, as they did last week between Harvick and Johnson at Chicagoland.

“It does feel different because there’s a lot on the line now,” Logano said. “As much as you try to make it feel like it was the rest of the season and nothing changes, something does change because it’s the playoffs. It’s going to get a little bit more intense. It’s going to feel different and, depending on your position after the first two races.

“Hopefully we get through this race and we can go (next week) through Dover and feel comfortable about what we’re doing and not having as much pressure.”

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