Joe Gibbs Racing is dominant, but what’s up with Hendrick?

I like what I saw Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

While we had our share of cautions (six total), we also had our share of long green-flag runs which turned into I believe four different sets of green-flag pit stops. We had a big wreck that brought out the last caution that unfortunately a lot of good cars were caught in.

What I liked about the other night was watching all the comers and goers. You had rookie Chase Elliott who actually had qualified fourth, but had to start at the rear of the field, yet by the time the night was over that young man got his very first top-five finish.

We had some interesting strategy at the end. I know that there’s probably a lot of folks wanting to bash Cole Pearn who is Martin Truex’s crew chief on his strategy call. Cole did not make the wrong call. When you are the leader of the race and have that few laps on your tires like the No. 78 had, you can’t pit. If they had pitted and lost this race, folks would be bashing Cole for pitting.

You have to make a call based on the circumstances in front of you. Cole made the call and unfortunately it didn’t work out for them as Kyle Busch ended up winning the race.

My gosh, Martin had a dominant car. He led 141 of 334 laps Saturday night. Naturally his competitors are going to do the opposite of what the No. 78 did. They stayed out, so the others pitted. I promise you, had he pitted, others would have stayed out. So Cole Pearn did not make the wrong call. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a winning call but it wasn’t a bad call.

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