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James Small, crew chief for Chase Briscoe‘s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, says Toyota’s four Chase contenders face a numbers problem at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, because only nine of the 40 cars entered for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 are Toyotas.
Small made the comments on Thursday’s episode of The Gluckcast with Jeff Gluck, where he was asked about Denny Hamlin‘s prediction that Chase contenders fighting for stage points would cause crashes at the ends of stages.
Small: ‘A little more nuanced than that’
Small did not dismiss Hamlin’s prediction, but he said fuel strategy will shape the opening stage.
“I think it’d be a little more nuanced than that,” Small said. “But definitely likely how it’s going to play out. Obviously, the first stage here being very long is probably the trickiest, just if it goes green.”
“There’s still going to be a lot of strategy involved in the good old fuel savings to make sure you get that green flag cycle right,” he said. “You position yourself well; you have enough fuel to get to the end. And when you want to start pushing versus saving. We’re not going to get away from that, unfortunately, but I think stage two and three become much more simpler being the shorter stages.”
Toyota’s numbers problem
Four of the top seven drivers in the Chase standings drive Toyotas: Christopher Bell, Briscoe, Hamlin and Tyler Reddick. Points leader Kyle Larson is the only Chevrolet driver in that group, and Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano are the only Fords, according to the standings after Phoenix.
Small said that split puts Toyota at a disadvantage on a superspeedway, where drivers rely on help from manufacturer teammates in the draft.
“With Chevrolet, there’s only really one car they have to worry about,” Small said. “Ford really only has two. And then, for us, we’ve got four in the top seven, and there’s only nine of us in total.”
“It doesn’t really work out for us as well as we would like, cause we’re almost kind of racing ourselves as well,” he said. “But we need to do our best to stick together and try and have some sort of game plan to at least maximize our points if we are not involved in a crash.”
The superspeedway package
Small said NASCAR’s updated superspeedway package was “directionally better” when it debuted at Daytona, even though reviews were mixed inside his own team.
“I do think, being in Talladega, it’s a little wider as well. There might be more opportunities,” Small said.
The spoiler has been cut again for Sunday’s race. “We’ll just have to see,” Small said. “Obviously, we’ve cut even more spoiler off this time. They were a little too slow last time, and we’ll see if it makes a difference.”
Racing could start earlier
Small said Chase contenders will likely run up front for stage points rather than ride at the back, and that stages ending early could change when drivers start pushing.
“So are we now going to start pushing earlier? Is it going to start getting racy with 20 to go or 15 to go, rather than five to go?” Small said.
Where the Chase stands
Talladega is the eighth race of the 10-race Chase. Larson leads Bell by five points, with Briscoe third, 24 points back, and Hamlin fourth, 31 back. Reddick, who won at Phoenix, is seventh, 56 points behind Larson.
The YellaWood 500 runs Sunday, October 25, at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. Coverage starts at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
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