Denny Hamlin may have had the best car that unloaded at Martinsville on Saturday morning and Chris Gabehart decided that even a version of it that was crashed in practice was still better than anything else they could have put together.
A stray piece of rubber lodged itself inside of the throttle body of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota Camry and Hamlin wasn’t able to lift and could only spin it into the wall. It destroyed parts of the rear end but Gabehart quickly deduced that it was worth saving.
“I mean, it was pretty bad,” Gabehart said. “But, when we started looking at the layers, and it’s like peeling an onion, the first layer was like ‘I’m not convinced we can save it,’ and then the second layer, ‘still not convinced’ and then one more and I was like, ‘okay, we got a shot to maybe fix this.’”
They peeled the entire rear bumper cover off and realized the rear clip was secure and the transaxle, undamaged. Then they pushed the car through the measurement bay to make sure everything was aligned properly.
“I don’t know if y’all saw, it made for some pretty pictures, but the whole back of the car ripped off, through inspection for some key measurements and they all looked good,” Gabehart said. “Honestly, as good as they could, and so we made the decision to not waste five (combined) hours of driving back and forth to the shop, and working on it there, and felt this car was the devil you know.
“I’m not saying it’s back to 100 percent but I think we are better than if we had swapped to a backup.”
So, if it isn’t 100 percent, how close to that number is it?
“It’s going way too hard (to say) and it doesn’t really matter to be honest with you,” Gabehart said. “We were really, really good prior to the issue and just super happy with the car. It’s really fast and I’m hopeful it will be good enough.”
All of this because what appeared to be a low percentage, super unlikely circumstance.
It’s the sort of thing that happens to the 11 team every October and November, it seems.
“Totally low percentage,” Gabehart said. “The way it happened, exactly, was a big clump of rubber got in between the throttle body shaft and it wouldn’t let the pedal return to 0 percent. It was very very rare because of where that’s at, it’s really hard for the rubber to even get there in the first place, but it did.”
All told, it just took four hours for the team to pull the panels off, inspect the rear clip, suspension and transaxle, and then begin rebuilding the rear support structure and body panels. In some ways, it’s a benefit of modular spec car racing and all the spare parts were contained in a crash cart packed away in the No. 54 hauler.
Once Cup Series qualifying ended, without the No. 11 team making a lap, other Joe Gibbs Racing employees came in and it was a total team building exercise and one that validated how Gabehart already felt about the company.
“That group consisted of a lot of dedicated JGR employees from multiple car numbers, and even some 23XI Racing guys helping us in our time of need, but I’m not surprised at all because that is the hallmark of any good organization, right? But it was comforting in that in our darkest hour, on the second biggest day of the year, behind tomorrow, that the company performed this way.
“I mean, it was a really huge moment to get kicked as hard as we did there, and suffer through trying to pick the pieces back up off the ground and see all our teammates helping us do it and I’m really thankful and can’t say enough how much I appreciate that and look forward to the opportunity tomorrow.
“I guarantee you, we will be heard from tomorrow at some point.”
Hamlin and Gabehart are going to have to be very, very loud to accomplish their goal and be heard from. They enter this race 18 points out of the championship race cutoff and will either need those ahead of them to suffer immediate misfortune or they are going to have to outright win, because they are likely not scoring many stage points on Sunday.
“If we weren’t already in a ‘let it rip’ mentality, we are really in a ‘let it rip’ mentality because our small opportunity to points our way in is probably gone,” Gabehart said. “But it’s okay because Denny and I have led a ton of races here together, won a lot of stages, and not won a race here together so that is our focus anyway so I’m not nervous.
“Yeah, we are down and out right now, given the scenario, but I am super thankful that we could get the car put together as good as we did, and as fast as we did, and as close as it was in practice. I’m not nervous as much as I am hopeful. I’m ready to get back here tomorrow and see what we have.”