{"id":20886,"date":"2018-08-02T10:44:38","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T15:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20886"},"modified":"2018-08-02T10:49:52","modified_gmt":"2018-08-02T15:49:52","slug":"denny-hamlin-says-kyle-buschs-success-is-all-about-the-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/02\/denny-hamlin-says-kyle-buschs-success-is-all-about-the-execution\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin says Kyle Busch\u2019s success is all about the execution"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Two days before Kyle Busch\u2019s<\/strong> victory in last Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 at Pocono Raceway, Denny Hamlin<\/strong> provided a precise blueprint for his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate\u2019s sixth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> win of the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Sweet Heat Toyota, and Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota, lead the field prior to the start of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on September 17, 2017 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

A post-qualifying inspection failure knocked Busch\u2019s No. 18 Toyota off the front row and back to a 28th-place starting position. In short order, however, Busch charged through the field, and a pit stop with four other Toyotas three laps before the end of Stage 2 allowed him to stay out under the caution at stage\u2019s end and ultimately take the lead.<\/p>\n

Busch survived two late restarts and held off teammate Daniel Suarez for his 49th career victory, a triumph that tied him with Tony Stewart for 13th on the all-time list.<\/p>\n

In a sit-down with reporters on Friday afternoon at Pocono, Hamlin explained how his teammate has been able to separate himself from the rest of the JGR drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey out-execute what their car is capable of every single week,\u201d Hamlin said of the No. 18 team, led by crew chief Adam Stevens. \u201cHe qualifies well. He doesn\u2019t lose his track position throughout the course of a race. At the end, the pit crew picks up three or four spots. The next thing you know he\u2019s restarting on the front row.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamlin acknowledged that his on No. 11 team hasn\u2019t been able to match the performance of the 2015 series champion.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Express Toyota, looks on from the garage during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on March 31, 2017 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jerry Markland\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something we have not done, to execute to the level that the 18 has,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cHe\u2019s really good about being able to finish better with a car that\u2019s not quite as good. In general, at JGR, we have our struggles, but they do a phenomenal job. You just look at execution, and that\u2019s the biggest difference I see between him and us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an organization, JGR is also working through a transition from experience to youth. Gone are Carl Edwards to retirement and 2003 series champion Matt Kenseth to make room for Erik Jones in the No. 20 car. Both Jones and Suarez are in their sophomore seasons at NASCAR\u2019s highest level, and both are still learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, when we had myself, Carl, Matt and Kyle, you weren\u2019t having to think about, \u2018Well, this is Daniel\u2019s or Erik\u2019s first time at a track, and they\u2019re leaning on you for information,\u201d said the 37-year-old Hamlin, the senior member of the JGR driver corps. \u201cSo how much information do you really lean back on them, because they are inexperienced, and they have to go through that struggle period, where we would always talk about, \u2018Hey, a few years ago we did this, and it really worked well.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThings just clicked, and things were good. But sometimes those things take time. As an organization, we probably weren\u2019t totally patient with Joey Logano, and look how it all worked out. He moved teams (to Team Penske), and all of a sudden\u2014bam\u2014it clicked for him. I think you have to be patient and go through the process to hopefully have the fruits and the benefits later.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hamlin waits patiently, Busch keeps winning. But that doesn\u2019t mean Hamlin has lost confidence, either in himself or in his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who thinks I can\u2019t win any given week is crazy,\u201d Hamlin asserted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Two days before Kyle Busch\u2019s victory in last Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 at Pocono Raceway, Denny Hamlin provided a precise blueprint for his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate\u2019s sixth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season. A post-qualifying inspection failure knocked Busch\u2019s No. 18 Toyota off the front row […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":12797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[154,59,16],"class_list":["post-20886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-joey-logano","tag-kyle-busch","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/CS_MENCS_Track_09171-e1505698508415.jpg?fit=640%2C460&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5qS","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20889,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20886\/revisions\/20889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}