Double-file restarts not sitting well with Gibbs
6 Comments Quote selected text Published July 6th, 2009 in NASCAR News
Those double-file restarts designed to spice up NASCAR racing sure didn’t sit too well with Joe Gibbs on Saturday night.
Points leader Tony Stewart used the double-file restarts to split up Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch late in the race, and it was a big reason the two-time series champion won the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
“For us, it was a problem because they way we were staggered,” Gibbs said. “We couldn’t get our two cars the way we’d like to get them. We had them for a while there, then that caution came up and it kept catching us where we could not really get lined up where we wanted to down the stretch there.”
Had Hamlin and Busch been able to get lined up together, they almost certainly would have chased down Stewart. Hamlin did manage to push Busch to the front following the final restart with four laps remaining, but it didn’t last. Hamlin dropped back, then Stewart and Jimmie Johnson teamed up to get a run on Busch. Busch tried to block Stewart, but ended up wrecking violently a few hundred yards from the finish line.
“It was tough at the end of the race right there,” Hamlin said. “I knew it was going to be all about positioning and where you put yourself, and I felt good about being on the outside right there on that restart with about five to go.
“But I knew that my help from (Johnson) was going to be limited. I knew he was going to dump me just as soon as he could. He wasn’t going to help push me past (Stewart) for sure. … The best chance for one of our cars to win was for me to push the 18 on the last lap.”
Stewart made it tough.
He said his lane choices were specifically designed to split the Gibbs guys up. The decision paid off, too.
“We had no choice but to take the bottom line and split those two guys up,” Stewart said. “We had to keep those guys separated to give ourselves a shot.”
NASCAR implemented double-file restarts last month, lining the field up side-by-side like it is at the beginning of races and giving the leader the option of starting on the inside lane or the outside.
of all people to be complaining about this change…Joe Gibbs?….i figured it would be Roush as hes always the first to stick a jab in…..but isnt this the whole pt in the double file restarts?…to add some more strategy and excitement?….why is it wrong for smoke to split up the toyotas who have obviously showed in previous plate races that when they hook up they can 2 car their way past and even end up way ahead of the entire field?..Seems to me like Gibbs needs to get over it…its going to benefit him sometime down the road and catch someone else of guard…but the typical “kyle busch fashion”, it will be ok when it benefits him…stop complaining seriously….get over it….the double file was the best thing Nascar has done in a long time to add more excitement
To bad Gibbs. I guarantee there will be a time when your teams do the exact same thing.
Cry me a river. Hamlin follows Kyle when he make his move, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
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Thank you!
whoever was doing well under the old system (gibbs) is going to complain about the new system. It is the same whenever there is a major change
That’s racing, Gibbs. Stewart is the reason the Toyota duo got split up, not the restart. Tony made a great choice by going up with Busch as soon as he passed him. Give him credit.