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JOE GIBBS RACING GEARING UP FOR CHASE

It’s a busy time at Joe Gibbs Racing, with Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch on the verge of clinching spots in the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Hamlin has driven the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry to a series-high five race victories so far this season and sits third in the points heading to Bristol Saturday night, while Kyle Busch has put the No. 18 M&M’s/Interstate Batteries in Victory Lane twice so far and lies eighth. With just three pre-Chase races remaining, both are near certainties to be among the 12 drivers in the 10-race Chase format that will determine the Sprint Cup Champion.

Just getting in the Chase is proof of a team and driver working tirelessly to be the best every time they roll into a racetrack. But it’s now that the real effort starts.

The Chase opens Sept. 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and that means there’s work to be done: Build new cars, decide which cars to take to the 10 Chase tracks and make sure the team is absolutely on the top of its game, so that JGR can contend for its fourth Sprint Cup Championship since 2000. It’s a task that every one of the more than 400 JGR employees is committed to and working toward.

“I think for us, like most every team, you’ve got to have consistency and you’ve got to have some good runs,” says JGR President J.D. Gibbs. “And that’s the key. So for us, it’s just making sure the t’s are crossed, the i’s are dotted — all the details — and get ready to go for it.”

That’s not as simple or easy as it sounds.

“There’s a couple different ways you can look at it: Some people are just trying to get the momentum going to where they’re consistently running up front; kind of fine-tuning the package they have and trying to be ready for the Chase,” says Jimmy Makar, JGR’s vice president of racing operations. “Other people look at it a little differently. They think that this is an opportunity to try to find something new, try to find a little edge that they can take into the Chase.”

By virtue of the points they amassed earlier this season, the JGR squad has had the luxury of doing a little experimenting over the long, hot summer.

“That’s the direction we’ve sort of taken,” Makar said. “We’ve worked on a few things the last several months and we’re starting to bring them out to see how they work, how they fit in the program. We’re giving the guys the opportunity to play with them a little bit before the Chase starts, so they can tweak ‘em and tune ‘em into advantages, hopefully.”

The team’s Chase blueprint has evolved over the summer, but the team has been plotting its direction and planning its car fleet for quite a while.

“We actually started about three months ago,” says Makar. “We decided to go with one of the packages that was a little different chassis than we had run. Nothing huge, but we had to put that plan in place quite a few months ahead of time — give the guys time to work on the testing part of it, the development part of it. And then giving the guys the opportunity to try race-test it.”

Over the final three races of NASCAR’s regular season, it will be pretty much all or nothing for Hamlin or Busch. Each race victory will give them 10 bonus points once the Chase begins. And since they’re virtually locked in already, winning is all that matters. If they finish second or 42nd, it doesn’t much matter.

“At this point, it’s about nothing but getting race wins. And if we don’t get a race win, then it’s about building setups that are going to work on these type of race tracks like once we get to California in the Chase,” says Hamlin. “We have to just keep our eyes on the prize.”

Overall, the team likes its chances once it reaches the Chase.

“I think we’ve got a good shot at winning going into the Chase this year with the 11 (Hamlin), and Kyle has shown that those guys can get hot,” says Makar. “I think the potential is there.”

“We ran real well for a while, then we had a little drop,” says Gibbs. “Now we’ve got to get some momentum and kind of come back. This sport is always about momentum. And I think for us, we have to get going. We’ve got a good plan, just have to have a couple of good races.”

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