Two drivers from two teams have evenly split the NASCAR Championship 4, but the statistics of their 2021 season are not so even. This latest odd has made one team the definite underdog on the speed track. Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, these two co-winning teams are now facing the dividing odds ahead of the upcoming season.
The Statistics
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott were the drivers from Hendrick Motorsports for the Championship, while Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. represented the Joe Gibbs Racing. Among all the 35 race wins of this season, Larson and Elliott combined for 11 with Larson winning 9 and Elliott bagging 2. On the other hand, with 2 wins for Hamlin and 4 for Truex, the combined number for Joe Gibbs stops at 6, almost half of Hendrick’s amount. While Joe Gibbs Racing owns 5 NASCAR Cup Series championships, Hendrick Motorsports proudly boasts 13 wins.
The Official Confession
Joe Gibbs Racing’s competition director Wally Brown also acknowledged their position in an official statement. He confessed that, though JGR is usually considered the favorite for a championship race, this time they are definitely the underdogs. To improve their mark, they have to beat Kyle Larson, the dominant multiple-winner of the season, along with the reigning champion of the coming track Chase Elliott. Brown also admitted that this year they lacked in the raw speed their competitor group had. The team is now trying to figure out the gaps and focusing on doing their best job by running a very clean race with good pit stops and well-executed.
The Opponent’s Reaction
According to Jeff Andrews, the executive vice-president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, the situation is not a huge personal advantage for his team. Though the statistics prove the argument in their favor, they are going to approach Joe Gibbs Racing on the upcoming championship track, keeping in mind that this is one of the best teams in the history of racing sport.
Ferrari confesses to introducing new F1 engines
Ferrari took initiative by coming forward and talking about the risks they took to upgrade the engines for F1’s races mid-season. They had introduced a new power unit that helped them increase development time. The final decision for these developments was granted during the Grand Prix in Russia, just when Charles Leclerc was given a penalty for having the new power unit in his car. Carlos Sainz also did the same thing in Turkey and when he got back into the grid, he was quite behind but made a rather impressive recovery.
Raising the Team’s Hopes
Ferrari has seen an improvement in performance since the changes and as a result, Leclerc was able to aim for a position at the podium, back in Istanbul. This has increased the hopes of the team to overtake McLaren and secure third place, which is really impressive.
It Was a Learning Experience
For Mattia Binotto, the team’s principal, the engine’s extra power is secondary to what was actually was supposed to be a learning experience to prepare for 2022. He explained that there was a degree of risk involved when Ferrari chose to push them to drive with the new engines instead of waiting until the end of the campaign. He said that it was a risk assessment. The key reason for doing this was to get better mileage on track and experiment before the power units were frozen in 2022.
Definitely Worth the Risk
Things were very close between McLaren and Ferrari. They were separated only by 7.5 points. The latter needed to perform only a little better to get ahead. Binotto mentioned that this boost of power is not a lot but definitely worth considering. He said that it gives them a small advantage. However, he did not intend to see how much of an advantage it was as per lap time because such things are always track-dependent.