All week, we're looking at NASCAR's top teams to size up their prospects and their year so far. Next up: The young fellers at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Drivers (rank): Denny Hamlin (5), Kyle Busch (10), Joey Logano (20). (The fourth in that picture above, second from left, is Nationwide driver Brad Coleman. You'll be hearing about him soon.)
Wins out of 19 races: 4 (Busch: Vegas, Bristol, Richmond; Logano: Loudon)
The story: It's been a typical great year for Gibbs, with Kyle Busch winning three races (albeit slowly slipping in the Chase standings), Denny Hamlin capitalizing on all the promise he'd shown in early years, and Joey Logano racing the hell out of the car and notching a win in his rookie season. Tony Stewart is no longer in the mix, but there's plenty of potential championship muscle both this year and for a decade to come at JGR.
The verdict: There was fear that without Stewart in the lineup, the Gibbs crew would fall apart. That's proven not to be the case, even if they do seem to be three completely disconnected drivers out there. Matter of fact, on balance there's really only one team running top to bottom better than Gibbs, and that's the one headed by Stew -- ah, never mind.
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