It appears that the engine issues suffered on Sunday by Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were the result of a bad batch of valve springs but there is much larger quality control issue at play regarding Joe Gibbs Racing right now.
First and foremost, Coach Joe Gibbs confirmed ‘valve springs’ on Monday during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“I think it always concerns you anytime you have a motor issue,” Gibbs said on the air. “We feel like, this morning, we went through everything that happened and got all the parts out and we have a plan and strategy where we end up in a good position and it doesn’t come back to us this next week in Phoenix.
“We have those parts, and anytime you have valve spring issues, they come in batches and we think we have that covered.”
Denny Hamlin engine failure, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Photo by: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
So first and foremost, Hamlin and Briscoe had already won their way into the final four so it was ultimately no harm and no foul, but for Hamlin, this was the latest in a string of mechanical misfortunes that has also included problems with the starter and power steering.
“I’m obviously concerned, but there obviously nothing I can do about it,” said Hamlin after climbing out of his car. “We’ll live with it and hopefully we’ll get back next week and we are just going to have to see how it goes. I’m confident in the speed that we’ll have next week. I’m really confident in what this team is going to bring next week and we’ll bring our best, hopefully it lasts.”
Gibbs also had a press availability on Monday afternoon with the media corps and addressed the issues.
“We’ve been on that all morning,” Hamlin said. “We’ve all got the parts out, looked at everything. I think issues with the motors are always concerning. You never want that to happen.
“I think we kind of have understood where we are and what those parts were and have made adjustments, for sure. Really, those parts will not be in the cars for this weekend. So, we feel good about that.”
Coach Gibbs said he left the technical stuff up to the engine department at Toyota Racing North America.
“What we do, we got a great group of technical people here,” Gibbs said of their joint shop in Huntersville, North Carolina. “Our Toyota people, particularly with the motors, which was a huge issue for us. It makes you really nervous. It makes them nervous, because they’re perfectionists.
“So this morning what we did, we got all the parts. We laid them out. We had a full discussion on where we are, what happened. That’s the first thing.
“Certainly in racing, you want to make sure you understand what did happen. That’s really important. What did cause? Don’t miss that. I think we’ve got that detailed.
“So the decisions then were made by Toyota, this is what we’re going to do for this coming weekend. We feel like that we’ve made the right decisions. We kind of have discussed what did happen, and we’re convinced we made the right decisions about what’s going to take place on Sunday. So I think it’s made by Toyota and a lot of our technical people.”
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