Is Team Penske passing Joe Gibbs Racing?
I know if you look at the recent race results from the last few races, you might say to yourself that Team Penske has definitely caught up to the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing. Joey Logano won at Michigan and teammate Brad Keselowski won the other night at Daytona for Team Penske.
You haven't seen JGR lead a lot of laps or win races of late. I just think we all need to be a little careful in ringing that bell a little too loud yet, that Team Penske has caught JGR.
It's been about a month since we've run what I consider a normal race. Now by that I mean that NASCAR came out with the new aero package for Michigan. We then ran a road course and then we just ran a restrictor-plate race.
I honestly don't know if you can even consider this coming Saturday nights race at Kentucky because of the re-pavement of the entire track, the reconfiguration of the track plus the different aero rules there.
I actually think we need to wait until we go back to Pocono and then onto the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis before we can truly say who the real players are. I think once those races are behind us we'll have a much better idea of who has caught who. Who might have gained some or who might have lost some.
It's my understanding from NASCAR that once we clear Kentucky, we are back to the original aero package we started 2016 off with, naturally with Talladega being the exception as the restrictor-plate tracks have their own separate set of rules.
Remember Joe Gibbs Racing was at its strongest with the original 2016 aero package. Now I do think Team Penske has gained on Joe Gibbs Racing. Sometimes though I think comparing Team Penske to Joe Gibbs Racing is unfair. You have Gibbs over there with four teams plus their alliance partner in the No. 78 while you have Penske with only two teams plus their alliance partner in the No. 21.
So I think we need to get back through a stretch of races using the original 2016 aero package and see what the results are before we can officially say Team Penske has caught Joe Gibbs Racing.
