Kyle Petty Sends Bold Reminder About Playoffs Uncertainty to JGR After “Pure Dominance” in R-16

Ex-NASCAR Cup racer Kyle Petty gives his take on how the R-16 dominance isn’t an indication of JGR are the clear championship favorite.

Kyle Petty Sends Bold Reminder About Playoffs Uncertainty to JGR After “Pure Dominance” in R-16

Kyle Petty (Via NBC Sports)

The NASCAR Cup Series playoff marked history in making in the 2025 playoff Round of 16, which saw Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota becoming only the second team to sweep a whole round, the second time in history. Chase Briscoe won at Darlington, Denny Hamlin at Gateway and Christopher Bell at Bristol. But it isn’t enough to convince Kyle Petty the TRD team are the favorites.

On his post-Bristol race analysis that saw dominant runs from winner Christopher Bell and teammate Ty Gibbs, ex-racer Kyle Petty explained how significant the sweep was from JGR. The last time a team done it was in 2015, where the reigning Cup champion Joey Logano won three races back-to-back for Team Penske Racing.

Unfortunately for the veteran, Kyle Busch went onto win the championship for Joe Gibbs Racing producing a solid run. This result shows the sweep a round doesn’t give a team a better shot at winning the title than the rest. So, 2025 might offer Logano the opportunity for payback, by breaking JGR’s heart like they did a decade ago.

That’s the only time a single round has been one by one owner and one manufacturer. But it was also with one driver: Joey Logano! He swept around in the playoffs… The problem is… He didn’t go on to win the championship. Kyle Busch won the championship with JGR and Toyota.

Kyle Petty said via nascar.com.

Further talking about the performance, Petty asserted that there was no question who is the best team at the moment, coming into the R-12. JGR showed pure dominance in all their races. But it might not be enough to get all three of their drivers in the championship-4 and they team also have to take into account that fact that the dominance that matters the most is a potential win in the Phoenix season finale.

GR! First round. Pure dominance when we look at laps lead, when we look at passes, when we look at anything that could happen, any stat NASCAR keeps. Will these guys make it forward? Will they move into the final round? Will we have three of those cars there? I doubt!… Dominance now is good, but dominance in Phoenix is a lot better.

Kyle Petty added.

Christopher Bell has already given a similar bad news to Toyota before Kyle Petty

Joe Gibbs Racing, being the dominant force they are, knows this playoffs dynamic. Bell, who won four races so far this season pointed out that he understands the R-16 domination of the team will not matter in the grand scheme of things, when the season comes to end with the finale.

Christopher Bell
Christopher Bell (Via @LVMotorSpeedway/X)

He admitted that the domination that matters is at Phoenix Raceway, and the better they run as they get close to the finale, the better chance they will have at the Bill France Cup. Bell also pointed out that that the last race of the season will obviously going to be tough for them, regardless of how good they are.

The bad news is we’re not running (the championship and season-ending race at) Phoenix next week and there’s still a long way to go to get there. I can promise you, whenever we get to Phoenix, it’s not going to be a runaway. No matter who’s in that Final Four, it’s always a dogfight. It’s always a good race.

Christopher Bell said.

The comments from Bell as well as the comments from Petty proves the R-16 results are not indication of how the playoff are going to playout, considering how the format has been over the years. It would be interesting to see how the three JGR championship favorite drivers are going to playout for them.

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