Kevin Harvick surprised by unexpected Joe Gibbs playoff eliminations

Two of the drivers eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs during the Round of 16 included Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs, and their downfall left Kevin Harvick surprised.

Evidently, Harvick expected more out of the talented JGR duo, but it wasn’t meant to be over the three race span that included Atlanta, Watkins Glen and Bristol. On the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, the former Cup Series champion elaborated on his disbelief.

“I think that the whole Gibbs thing is very interesting to me,” Harvick explained, regarding the young wheelman. “Two of the cars getting eliminated this week, with the No. 54 and the No. 19. I guess we should specifically talk about them, because the No. 54 has had the speed all year to win races, and it comes down to the exact same thing that happened this weekend, a mistake, and speeding penalty on pit road. Yeah, you don’t want it to happen, but it happened. If you look back at a lot of the other races, it’s been a speeding penalty, or a pit road penalty, or something on pit road, for the most part.

“Engine problems with Toyota. Denny Hamlin’s engine going back too early, getting the penalty, which ultimately could’ve put him out of the playoffs if these two guys didn’t have problems. But, the No. 54 kind of self-inflicted their wound, their exit of the playoffs, the same exact way that they had all year, in not winning races.”

Moreover, the flip side of the coin is the fact that Truex Jr. is retiring from full-time racing at the end of the season, and Harvick believes that’s contributed to the No. 19 falling short of their ultimate goal all season long.

“I think when you look at the No. 19, I think Bob Pockrass called this one dead-on, not knowing if Martin was going to advance out of the first round, just with that one foot in, one foot out commitment level, that I think has kind of been there for the last couple of years,” Harvick added. “… I think (crew chief) James [Small] is frustrated with that one foot in, one foot out commitment level from Martin, ‘Do I want to retire, do I want to come back? Eh, we don’t have anybody else, we’ll put you in again and see how it goes.’

“It’s gone the exact same way the last two years. You cannot race this car with one foot in, one foot out commitment, because there’s a workload that’s required to go with this car on a week-to-week basis. I think, when you look at the race, Martin was running second, made a mistake on pit road, that happens, but you can’t tell me that the second-place car couldn’t pass one car after the pit stop.

“So, you have to feel for those guys, and I think that some of James’ frustration, from the crew chief side of it is, ‘Was my driver fully engaged, to do what we needed to do?’ Martin kind of said it last week, ‘I’m frustrated. Don’t really like what I’m doing. Happy it’s almost over.'”

Alas, Joe Gibbs Racing still has Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin in the playoffs, but the elimination of Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. are certainly a surprising turn of events. It’ll be interesting to see whether the team can win another title in 2024, but Kevin Harvick recognizes they’ll have a lot of tough competition to go through after a brutal Round of 16 for the organization.