Remember the last time Joe Gibbs won a championship? It was back in 2019 when Kyle Busch won the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, beating teammate Martin Truex Jr. by a 4.578-second margin. While that may have capped off Busch’s best season before which he spiraled into a winless streak, it also marked JGR’s last title. And it was six years ago – a fact that dug into Denny Hamlin’s conscience during the latest Cup Series playoff race.

NASCAR visited New Hampshire Motor Speedway as the Round of 12 playoff opener. And most of the attention was on Joe Gibbs Racing, as all three of its playoff drivers had swept the Round of 16. However, the outlier, Ty Gibbs, has neither a playoff spot nor any trophy – yet he made it a point to loudly trumpet his presence. And Hamlin could not stand that.

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