Joe Gibbs Racing emerges as
championship favorite after first-round sweep of the NASCAR Cup playoffs
[September 15, 2025]
By NATE RYAN
Whether it’s winning three Super Bowls or five NASCAR Cup Series
championships, Joe Gibbs knows how to guide his teams to success
through internal turmoil.
So when Christopher Bell angrily called out his No. 20 crew last
week for questionable strategy during a 24-race winless streak,
Gibbs let the emotions run their course rather than step in to
defuse the tension.
“I’ve been on the sideline and heard some outbursts,” Gibbs said.
“We’ve had some outbursts in our competition meetings in racing.
I’ve learned when you’re around sports, and things don’t go your
way, that’s going to happen every now and then.
“I let them handle it. I really do.”
With his fourth victory this season, Bell reaffirmed Saturday night
at Bristol Motor Speedway that that’s a winning philosophy for Joe
Gibbs Racing, which completed a first-round sweep of the NASCAR Cup
Series playoffs at the Tennessee short track.
Bell, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe have won three consecutive
races to stamp the team as the championship favorite. JGR’s four
Toyotas led a combined 757 of 1,107 laps in the first round of the
playoffs, which were cut from 16 to 12 drivers at Bristol with seven
races and three rounds remaining.
“We’ve got fast cars right now,” Gibbs said. “I think it just says a
lot for the way we feel back at the race shop. It’s a big deal all
the way across the board for us. It really means a lot.”
His hands-off approach won Cup titles with hot-tempered Tony Stewart
and Kyle Busch. Bell is mild-mannered by comparison, so he made
headlines with a vulgarity-filled tirade on his team radio for
losing “with the best car every week” after a seventh place at World
Wide Technology Raceway.
He had only praise Saturday for his team and crew chief Adam
Stevens, who deftly managed Bell’s pace and tactics over 500
hazardous laps at Bristol as many teams struggled with excessive
tire wear on the 0.533-mile oval. Charging from fourth to first on a
late restart, Bell led the final four laps and held off Brad
Keselowski for his 13th career victory.
“Winning fixes everything, that’s for sure,” Bell said. “It’s a huge
morale boost for the team and myself as a driver.
“I got really frustrated last week because we had an opportunity to
win, and we didn’t. We’ve had several opportunities to win
throughout the summer, and we didn’t. Every week, we can do it, and
while I was frustrated with the calls last week, Adam nailed every
call this week. Tonight was just a perfect example of everybody
doing the right things.”
Though Bell won the All-Star Race exhibition in May, Bristol marked
his first Cup points victory since March. After a 31st-place crash
in the Daytona 500 season opener, he won three consecutive races at
Atlanta Motor Speedway, Circuit of the Americasand Phoenix Raceway,
which will be the site of the Nov. 2 championship race.
Stevens reminded his driver that the No. 20 Toyota often came close
to winning during the drought.
“It felt like a long time because we’ve had such good speed between
now and then,” Stevens said. “That’s inherently frustrating when you
can’t capitalize on it. The reasons why you’re not capitalizing are
probably week to week, and it just comes down to execution and
qualifying a little better and having track position late in the
races.
“We’re all big boys trying to do a hard job, and we have every tool
and every piece of the puzzle to do it.”
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Christopher Bell (20) leads Brad Keselowski (6) during a NASCAR Cup
Series auto race, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, in Bristol, Tenn. (AP
Photo/Wade Payne)
The three tracks in the second round set up well
for Bell, who has wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the
Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. He also has a series-best four poles
at Kansas Speedway and a runner-up finish in May at the 1.5-mile
oval.
“We are in a really good spot right now, the Toyota group, and
specifically Joe Gibbs Racing,” Bell said. “But we’ve got a long way
to go to get to Phoenix, and it’s going to be a hard road.”
Tricky tires
NASCAR released an extra set of tires halfway through the race,
which featured a season-high 14 caution flags and 137 laps run under
the yellow — the most at Bristol since 167 caution laps in the July
25, 1965, race. Many incidents resulted from drivers misjudging gaps
because of massive disparities in lap times with a less durable
right-side tire whose speed diminished rapidly.
“It was just chaotic,” regular-season champion William Byron said.
“From around 10th on back, there were just people running into each
other.”
There had been no issues with tire wear during Friday afternoon
practice, which had crew chiefs such as Stevens strategizing for
being able to run more than 100 laps on a set of rubber. But
temperatures dropped into the low 60s Saturday night, and the
conditions caused excessive wear after 30 laps. No driver went past
85 laps before pitting.
“I would have bet my house that it was going to be a normal Bristol
race, but they’re working hard to make the tires wear out,” Stevens
said. “By golly, I think they hit it this time. That was shocking.
God help us all because if we’re going to see this every week,
that’s going to shorten the careers of some people.”
Agonizing wait continues
After leading a career-high 201 laps, Ty Gibbs settled for 10th
after botching his pit entry on a green-flag stop with 65 laps
remaining. The grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs remained winless
through 116 starts in the Cup Series.
“This sport is really hard, and I keep telling him patience,” Joe
Gibbs said. “Two races ago, he said: ‘Coach, will you quit using the
word patience. I don’t want you to use it ever again.’ So patience
is out the window. We’re trying to win here. I just think he knows
this is what he’s wanted to do his entire life, and so he’s after
it.”
Hitting the road
Despite four wins on road and street courses in the regular season,
Shane van Gisbergen was eliminated in the first round with three
consecutive finishes of 25th or worse. The Trackhouse Racing rookie,
who is inexperienced on ovals after winning three championships in
the Australian-based Supercars series, placed 26th at Bristol after
spinning twice.
“It’s a privilege to be here but also pissed at myself,” van
Gisbergen said. “The last few weeks I just haven’t been good enough.
I’ve been really doing well getting better at ovals, and I just
haven’t performed the last couple of weeks. I blame myself at the
moment but thanks to the Trackhouse team, we’ve had an awesome
year.”
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