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Joe Gibbs Racing didn’t have a particularly good weekend in Indianapolis. The teams finished 10th, 25th and 27th. Adding to the weekend woes was what has become a very common problem for JGR – an expired engine; this time for Denny Hamlin.

This ongoing issue comes as rumors about the future of JGR’s engine program swirl. We’ve heard in recent months that there have been layoffs within JGR’s engine department and J.D. Gibbs said this weekend, after earlier denying it, that a collaboration with Toyota Racing Development is possible.

The team has struggled the last couple of seasons with sour engines. There have been nine expired engines so far this season prior to races. In the last two seasons, bad engines have cost the team five DNFs. Those aren’t numbers to be proud of.

Despite the issues, the team has had success with their engine program. Since switching to Toyota in 2008 they’ve racked up 34 wins. That means, in three and half seasons a JGR team wins one in every four races. Those ARE numbers to be proud of.

The same can’t be said for TRD’s engine program. Since entering the sport in 2007 they have just three wins – and of those three only one wasn’t decided by weather or fuel mileage.

The difference between the two programs is stunning. While one has flourished, the other has languished. While one has found success and competed for championships, the other hasn’t done much. Still, the TRD engines haven’t had nearly as much trouble as the Gibbs engines.

The serious issues with reliability are taking their toll on the team – things can’t continue like this if JGR hopes to compete for championships and regularly compete for wins.

I’m certain this is a top priority for Gibbs. And obviously, Gibbs’ head engine builder Mark Cronquist – a NASCAR and JGR veteran – would likely be part of any collaboration with TRD. One can also suspect much of the talent and knowledge that has made JGR such a powerhouse would make the move, but is this what’s best?

The team needs to get its house in order and soon. While Hamlin remains on the cusp of a Chase run and Logano is far out, Kyle Busch is likely to sit near the top of the standings when the points reset in a few weeks. If there’s any hope of converting the team’s success up to this point to a seat at the head table in Las Vegas, reliability has to be improved.

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2010 hasn’t been smooth sailing for the Joe Gibbs Racing teams of Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. Hamlin this weekend showed his recovery from ACL surgery is going to be tough if even just for his own stubbornness; and for the second week in a row Busch was denied a win because of a bad late race pit call.

After the race at Phoenix Kyle Busch was fuming mad. His anger at his situation kept him from doing any post-race interviews, and it was probably all for the best. Fox attempted to interview him, but he brushed them off in what, according to a producer, was TMZ-esque video. They elected not to show it. Had it not been for a late race pit call by Dave Rogers though the TV cameras may very well have been interviewing Kyle Busch in victory lane.

I’m not one to be a Monday morning crew chief (and I know it’s all to easy to do), but what a call? Dave Rogers brought Kyle Busch in for a four tire stop with what everyone knew would be a G-W-C finish. He admitted later he knew the #39 and #24 were taking two tires. And while he couldn’t have foreseen getting bottled up on pit road, he should have known two laps wasn’t going to be enough for four tires to matter. The track position, especially at a place like Phoenix, is what was important and with his call he ensured they lost theirs.

To make matters worse this is the second week in a row a pit call by Rogers has cost them the chance at a win. In Martinsville, Rogers elected to bring Busch in behind teammate Denny Hamlin with just six to go. Where Mike Ford was in a tough spot with Denny Hamlin, Dave Rogers was not with Kyle Busch. It was apparent by the time Kyle made the move to pit road that no one of significance was following them in. Ironically it was this pit call that ultimately put Kyle in a position to get wrecked and allowed Denny the chance to win – the first Gibbs Cup win of the season.

I wrote a few weeks ago asking if Kyle had any regrets letting Steve Addington go. The past two weeks have proved to me that my question was justified. Rogers is certainly putting the team in position to win, as is Kyle, but he’s snatching the opportunities back with bad calls. Kyle may not have ended up winning either of these past two weeks but he never had a chance to prove otherwise because of the pit calls.

With the way he has run you’ve got to wonder how long it will be before Dave Rogers gets sent down the river. We’re reaching a point where Kyle is going to be less trusting of Rogers’ pit calls and that’s a problem. We saw how quick they were to get rid of Steve Addington last season and he had four wins and led them to a 13th place finish in the points. All I have to say to Dave Rogers is, good luck.

I also had to question the call this weekend to let Denny Hamlin stay in the car the whole race. It was almost frustrating to watch him run like he did when he had a backup driver itching to get in the car. He had to be in pain and there was no reason for him to finish what was a long race. I can’t imagine driving 378 miles a week after major surgery on my knee.

It was almost like Hamlin felt he needed to prove something to somebody. I know it sucks to get out of the car, but if you’re in pain and running poorly why risk aggravating the injury? If I’m JD Gibbs I would have told him to bring the car in. There were plenty of opportunities for them to come in and make a switch without losing much ground. They just never took it.

The silly thing is the move could have helped them in their championship bid. Instead they finished the day in 30th, two laps down. He was outrun by underfunded Bobby Labonte and Scott Riggs and just barely outran the underfunded and underpowered Front Row cars. We’ll see if he thinks better of it next week.

I know we’re still early in the season and generally speaking Kyle Busch and Dave Rogers’ relationship is still young, but some of the things that have happened this season have me scratching my head. They’re both great teams and they’re more than capable of winning every week, but doing stuff like they’ve been doing is not going to help them down the stretch.

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It’s now been eight races, since Steve Addington gave up the reins of the #18 team to Dave Rogers. In that time, Kyle Busch has not done a whole lot. And while the season is still young, and Busch’s and Roger’s Cup partnership is still relatively new, I have to wonder if Kyle isn’t beginning to have regrets about letting Addington get away.

Dave Rogers took over last November in Texas. Since that time Busch has scored two top-ten finishes; a respectable eighth at Homestead and ninth yesterday at Bristol. His average 13.5 finish is better than last season as a whole, but looking at this time last year, Busch had already scored a win and two top-fives.

For his part, Steve Addington, who joined Kyle’s brother Kurt this season, guided Kyle to 12 wins, 26 top-fives, 33 top-tens and three poles in 2008 and 2009. So far, in his first five races with the #2 team, he has racked up one win, two top-fives, three top tens and one pole with Kurt Busch.

While the two brothers only sit three positions apart in the points, they seem to be worlds apart in the momentum they have started the season with. Kyle has consistently run in the middle of the pack and through the first five races of this season only led 66 of 1,566 laps completed. Compare that to Kurt Busch’s 441.

Certainly there are other things one could factor into the success of these two drivers, but the one thing that binds the two and that marks the major change in both organizations is Steve Addington.

While it’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback (or crew chief if you prefer) on these things, the fact of the matter is, he’s proven he is effective with more than one driver.

Stepping away for just a moment, it’s been well documented that Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus were at odds at the end of the 2005 season. A come to Jesus meeting with Rick Hendrick helped work out their issues. Since then, they’ve become an unstoppable force in the sport.

I wonder if this sort of thing was tried at Joe Gibbs Racing. Despite the troubles they had last season, it’s hard, in my mind at least, to justify booting the guy who led your team to 12 wins, out the door. Perhaps a meeting would have helped smooth over some of the tensions at JGR. Unfortunately we’ll never know.

Hopefully though this will serve as a lesson to Kyle and to JGR to not be so quick to get rid of the one who ‘brung ya.’ It’ll be interesting to see how the #18 team reacts to their situation and whether they can keep Kyle a dominate force within the sport. Only time will tell.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Kyle Busch, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Joe Gibbs Racing

Despite turning in a four-win 2009 season and leading Kyle Busch to a series best eight victories last year, Steve Addington (far right, with Busch) is being replaced by Dave Rogers as crew chief of Busch's No. 18 Toyota beginning with the Nov. 8 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Addington, 45, who has served as crew chief of the No. 18 car for five years, will be reassigned within the Joe Gibbs Racing organization, according to a news release from the team on Tuesday.

"We evaluate all of our teams on an ongoing basis and believe this is a change that will make the 18 team stronger as we prepare for next season,'' said JGR President J.D. Gibbs. "We think highly of Steve and the job he has done and we look forward to him remaining a part of the JGR family."

Steve Addington Out as Kyle Busch's Crew Chief originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:52:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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