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Hamlin: JGR would be "dumbest group in history" if they raced in pack

Denny Hamlin said Friday that his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates would have been the “dumbest group in history” if they had raced in the middle of the pack last Sunday at Talladega and risked getting caught up in a wreck.

Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

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Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Race action

Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch – who were all solid enough in points to advance to the Round 8 – have received a lot of criticism from fans this past week for spending most of the Talladega race riding around in the back of pack, attempting to void any big wrecks.

The strategy worked, in part because there were no large wrecks, and Hamlin finished well enough to join his three teammates in the Round of 8 and JGR drivers now make up half of the remaining Chase field.

“It was very smart move,” Hamlin said at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. “From our standpoint, we had a very uphill battle because I knew we weren’t going to have any teammates all day because we all knew what they were going to do.

“But they would have been the dumbest group in history if they were in the middle of that pack and wrecked at some point and they didn’t have to be. It’s about winning championships, not winning Talladega.

“Those guys earned the right to do that by have a good two races (in the Round of 12). Next year, with the (Kansas and Talladega) races being switched around, you’ll see a lot less of that because people won’t know where they stand. I think it will kind of fix itself.”

Playing it safe

Hamlin, as he did after last Sunday’s race, said strategy was simply dictated by playing the odds.

“There’s no way those guys should have been up there helping me and then put themselves in danger and then risk Gibbs instead of having three cars (definitely) in the Chase to having two or maybe one,” Hamlin said.

“They played the strategy they had to in order to get in and I played the strategy I needed to in order get in. Nobody from any other team would have done anything different, that’s for sure.

“If they told you different, that’s a lie.”

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