Power Rankings: Even ill-fated gambles don't knock Stewart down

Updated March 31

How strong has Joe Gibbs Racing been through the first six races?

So strong that the lone driver of the JGR trio without a victory actually leads our Power Rankings.

In seasons past, if you'd have said JGR has two victories in the first six races, almost assuredly Tony Stewart would have been responsible for one of them. But with Kyle Busch having moved into the No. 18 ride in place of J.J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin having established himself as a winner in the No. 11, Stewart no longer carries the weight of JGR's success or failure on his shoulders.

Whatever expectations Gibbs had in making the move to Toyota have been met, if not exceeded in the early going.

Busch dominated the season-opening Daytona 500 before ultimately falling short of the victory. In his first four races for Gibbs he nabbed three top fives, including the first Cup victory for Toyota. He's had some hard luck the past couple of races, finishing 17th at Bristol and 38th Sunday at Martinsville.

Hamlin was in the opposite boat. He struggled at the start of the season before hitting stride the past couple of races, leading 98 laps and finishing sixth at Bristol and leading 82 laps and grabbing Toyota's second win at Martinsville. The victory at his home track came as a huge relief to the Virginia native.

"When you get so close to winning so many races and something bad happens or things just don't work out in your favor at the end and you end up losing a win, it's tough to maintain confidence," Hamlin said. "It's tough -- your self-esteem starts going down. It takes its toll on you -- last week was just like how many times do we have to go through this.

"I felt like we had a chance to probably win three in a row, but the first two races just had a lot of problems. A lot of thanks go the guy at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) to help support us at Joe Gibbs Racing to try to get our issues worked out. They don't have to -- those are issues within our race team that we had. For them to kind of take a lead role and say that they would do whatever it took to help us fix the problems -- that goes a long way. And that is what you look for in a manufacturer from those guys. And I couldn't be prouder to be with them."

And then there's Stewart. No doubt after seeing both his teammates win, Stewart is eager to pick up a trophy of his own, but he can take some solace in having the most consistent runs of the bunch. He leads the team with four top 10s, and even when he finished 43rd due to a blown tire at Las Vegas, he was running in the top 10 at the time. With a different bit of pit strategy, it could have been Stewart in Victory Lane at Martinsville.

"I screwed us today," said Stewart. "I pitted and took a gamble when we had 40 laps on tires. I thought everybody would come in, but if they didn't, I thought we might get a run and catch them. It didn't work out. I ended up losing 11 spots, I think, so it was a bad decision on my part."

Power Rankings after Martinsville: