Whether its 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.
Ive been on the sideline and heard some outbursts, Gibbs said. Weve had some outbursts in our competition meetings in racing. Ive learned when youre around sports, and things dont go your way, thats 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 thats 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. JGRs 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.
Weve got fast cars right now, Gibbs said. I think it just says a lot for the way we feel back at the race shop. Its 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 Bells 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, thats for sure, Bell said. Its 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 didnt. Weve had several opportunities to win throughout the summer, and we didnt. 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 Americas and 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 weve had such good speed between now and then, Stevens said. Thats inherently frustrating when you cant capitalize on it. The reasons why youre 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.
Were all big boys trying to do a hard job, and we have every tool and every piece of the puzzle to do it.
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 weve got a long way to go to get to Phoenix, and its 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 theyre 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 were going to see this every week, thats 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 dont want you to use it ever again. So patience is out the window. Were trying to win here. I just think he knows this is what hes wanted to do his entire life, and so hes 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.
Its a privilege to be here but also pissed at myself, van Gisbergen said. The last few weeks I just havent been good enough. Ive been really doing well getting better at ovals, and I just havent performed the last couple of weeks. I blame myself at the moment but thanks to the Trackhouse team, weve had an awesome year.
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AP auto racing:
无论是三夺超级碗冠军，还是五捧纳斯卡杯系列赛奖杯，乔·吉布斯（Joe Gibbs）都深谙如何在内部动荡中带领团队走向成功。
因此，当克里斯托弗·贝尔（Christopher Bell）上周因连续24场比赛未获胜而对20号车组的策略提出愤怒质疑时，吉布斯（Gibbs）选择让情绪自然宣泄，而非介入缓解紧张气氛。
“我曾在场边听到过一些激烈的言辞，”吉布斯说道。“在赛车比赛的战术会议中，我们也曾有过情绪激动的时刻。我逐渐明白，当你身处体育竞技中，而事情未能如你所愿时，这种情况偶尔就会发生。”
“我让他们处理了。真的。”
周六晚在布里斯托尔汽车赛道上，贝尔以本赛季第四次夺冠的佳绩再次印证了乔·吉布斯车队的制胜理念——该车队在田纳西州短道赛上实现了NASCAR杯系列季后赛首轮的全胜横扫。
克里斯托弗·贝尔、小丹尼·哈姆林和蔡斯·布里斯科连续赢得三场比赛，使他们的车队成为夺冠热门。在季后赛首轮中，乔·吉布斯车队的四辆丰田赛车合计领跑了1107圈中的757圈。布里斯托尔站后，参赛车手从16名缩减至12名，目前还剩7场比赛和3轮角逐。
“我们现在的赛车速度很快，”吉布斯说道，“我认为这充分体现了我们在赛车车间的感受。这对我们整个团队来说都是件大事，意义非凡。”
他这种放任自流的管理方式曾助力脾气火爆的托尼·斯图尔特和凯尔·布施赢得杯赛冠军。相较之下，贝尔性格温和许多，但这次却因在世广科技赛道仅获第七名后，通过车队无线电怒骂“每周都开着最好的赛车却输掉比赛”而登上头条。
周六，他对自己的团队和车队主管亚当·史蒂文斯（Adam Stevens）赞不绝口。在布里斯托尔赛道0.533英里的椭圆赛道上，当许多车队因轮胎过度磨损而陷入困境时，史蒂文斯巧妙地掌控了贝尔的节奏和战术，使其在危险的500圈比赛中游刃有余。贝尔在比赛末段重启时从第四位猛冲至首位，最终领跑最后四圈，并成功抵挡住布拉德·凯瑟洛夫斯基（Brad Keselowski）的攻势，赢得了职业生涯的第13场胜利。
“胜利能解决一切问题，这一点毋庸置疑，”贝尔说道，“这对车队和我作为车手而言，都是巨大的士气鼓舞。”
上周我感到非常沮丧，因为我们本有机会获胜却错失了。整个夏天我们多次与胜利擦肩而过。虽然我对上周的判罚感到不满，但亚当（Adam）本周的每次判罚都无可挑剔。今晚就是所有人各司其职的完美范例。
尽管贝尔（Bell）在五月份赢得了全明星表演赛，但布里斯托尔站才是他自三月以来首次在杯赛积分赛中夺冠。在戴通纳500赛季揭幕战中以第31名撞车退赛后，他接连在亚特兰大汽车赛道、美洲赛道和凤凰城赛道赢得三连冠，而凤凰城赛道正是11月2日冠军赛的举办地。
史蒂文斯提醒他的车手，20号丰田赛车在低谷期曾多次与胜利擦肩而过。
史蒂文斯表示："这段时间感觉格外漫长，因为我们在此期间一直保持着强劲的速度。明明具备优势却无法转化为胜势，这种挫败感是难以避免的。未能把握机会的原因可能每周都不尽相同，但归根结底还是在于执行力——我们需要提升排位赛表现，并在正赛后期争取更有利的赛道位置。"
“我们都是肩负重任的成年人，且已具备完成任务所需的一切资源和关键要素。”
第二轮的三条赛道对贝尔极为有利——他曾在**新罕布什尔汽车赛道**和**夏洛特汽车赛道罗瓦尔赛道**夺冠，还在**堪萨斯赛道**创下系列赛最佳的四次杆位纪录，并于五月在1.5英里椭圆形赛道上获得亚军。
贝尔表示：“丰田车队，尤其是乔·吉布斯车队，目前形势一片大好。但通往菲尼克斯的道路还很漫长，且充满艰辛。”
难缠的轮胎
纳斯卡车赛在比赛中途额外发放了一套轮胎。本场比赛共出示14次黄旗，创下本赛季新高，并有137圈在黄旗下完成——这是布里斯托尔赛道自1965年7月25日比赛（167圈黄旗）以来的最高纪录。由于右侧轮胎耐用性较差导致圈速急剧下降，车手们因圈速差异过大而频繁误判超车间距，从而引发多起事故。
“简直一片混乱，”常规赛冠军威廉·拜伦说道，“从第十名往后的车手们都在相互碰撞。”
周五下午的练习赛中轮胎磨损并未出现问题，这让包括史蒂文斯在内的车队主管们开始制定策略，计划让一套轮胎能够支撑超过100圈的比赛。然而周六夜间气温骤降至60华氏度（约15.6摄氏度）以下，这种工况导致轮胎在30圈后便出现异常磨损。所有车手进站前行驶里程均未超过85圈。
史蒂文斯表示："我原本敢用全部身家打赌这会是一场普通的布里斯托尔站比赛，但他们却在竭力让轮胎快速磨损。天哪，我觉得他们这次做到了。这太令人震惊了。愿上帝保佑我们，因为如果每周都看到这种情况，某些车手的职业生涯恐怕要提前结束了。"
痛苦的等待仍在持续
泰·吉布斯（Ty Gibbs）在比赛中领跑多达201圈，创下个人职业生涯新高，但在剩余65圈时因绿旗进站失误，最终仅获得第10名。作为车队老板乔·吉布斯（Joe Gibbs）的孙子，他已在杯赛系列中出战116场，仍未尝胜绩。
乔·吉布斯表示：“这项运动确实很难，我一直告诉他要有耐心。两场比赛前，他对我说：‘教练，能不能别再提耐心这个词了？以后都别再用了。’所以现在我们不谈耐心了，我们只想赢。我觉得他明白这是他一生的追求，所以他全力以赴。”
踏上旅程
尽管肖恩·范吉斯伯根在常规赛季中四次赢得公路赛和街道赛，但他仍因连续三站排名第25位或更差而在首轮淘汰。这位Trackhouse Racing车队的新秀车手，虽然在澳大利亚超级赛车系列赛中三夺冠军，但对椭圆形赛道经验不足，在布里斯托尔站两次打滑后最终位列第26名。
范吉斯伯根表示：“能站在这里是一种荣幸，但我也对自己感到恼火。过去几周我的表现不够好。我本已在椭圆形赛道上取得了明显进步，但最近两周却发挥失常。此刻我归咎于自己，不过要感谢Trackhouse车队——我们共同度过了辉煌的一年。”
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