No worries from JGR after Denny Hamlin’s stuck throttle

To win the NASCAR Cup Series championship in less than two weeks, Denny Hamlin and the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 team will need to be perfect at Phoenix Raceway.

On one hand, they executed last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to become the first driver to lock into the final four but this past month has also seen the team experience power steering and stuck throttles at Kansas and Talladega respectively.

It’s also an easy narrative to latch onto this weekend because it’s the one-year anniversary of a stuck throttle in practice at Martinsville that derailed Hamlin’s efforts to win his way into the final four then.

That was the result of a freak accident, a piece of chunked rubber working its way into the throttle body, and locking his car into full song.

To wit, Joe Gibbs Racing competition director Chris Gabehart, his former crew chief, says he’s not worried even if he is taking it seriously, when asked if there was a quality control issue.

“No, there’s a lot more to the story than that,” Gabehart said. “I think we already have a good understanding of what happened there. We’re not going to get any into any details but it is a little bit of a freak instance that we need to get to the bottom of, for sure. I don’t want to take it lightly, but it was not something as simple as a bolt coming loose or something like that.”

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Hamlin is more worried

For his part, Hamlin addressed the litany of issues he’s experienced this year on his Actions Detrimental podcast on Monday, and said they need to ‘figure it out’ before the Championship Race.

“Yeah, it’s really, really frustrating because we want our results dictated by our performance on the race track,” Hamlin said. “Nothing would absolutely suck worse than to go to Phoenix and have a mechanical (issue) or something happen that takes away (my) opportunity to achieve (my) dream.

“We’ve had issues with batteries and starters and clutches, and lots, lots and lots this year. I’ve had all three and how should I word this … What if we hadn’t won (Vegas) and that was my championship hopes and that is where my frustration lies.”

Hamlin said he doesn’t pin blame on anyone at the shop. He called the shop crew ‘phenomenal’ He said he would go to war with them.

“It’s not necessarily things that we put together that I would love to see us fix,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know that we’re going to fix it in a couple of weeks but I just hope it doesn’t play a factor when it really really counts at the end of these races, especially the final race.

“So how do you not worry about something like this? You could say I can’t change it regardless and if it happens, it happens… just cross your fingers and hope the luck gods will stay in your favor for one more week, the final week.”