Joe Gibbs Racing hasn't posted win in past six races; are they due?

Joe Gibbs Racing is winless in past six races.

A couple months ago it seemed like Joe Gibbs Racing could not be beat. The Huntersville, North Carolina-based racing outfit’s four-driver stable of Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth won seven of the first 12 races of the season and 17 of the last 31 contests dating back to the Kentucky race last July.

There’s no need to panic for JGR, but it’s looked mortal lately, going winless over the last six races. JGR looks to return to its winning ways in Sunday’s New Hampshire 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN) – a track it swept last year with Busch in July and Kenseth in September.

Busch, Kenseth and Hamlin know how to maneuver around The Magic Mile. All three boast two wins apiece in the Granite State. Edwards has never won there, but finished second at New Hampshire in July 2006.

“(New Hampshire) is a Martinsville-like short track, but it’s just over a mile,” said Busch, who won the ESPY for Best Driver on Wednesday night. “It’s a little more spread out, but there’s some rooting and gouging going on because it’s a one-lane track and everybody fights for that particular groove. To be fast at Loudon, you have to have good brakes and you have to roll the center really well and get that good forward bite off the corners and make sure it sticks.”

The New Hampshire races have featured plenty of parity in recent years. Dating back to 2008, 14 different drivers have won in the last 16 events there.

One driver who might be on the verge of mastering the track is Kenseth, who’s won two of the last five races at The Magic Mile.

“It’s important to find that balance where you can still restart really well but also be decent in the long run (at New Hampshire),” Kenseth said. “It’s challenging to find the balance necessary in order to be decent at the start, but then also to have your car turning well enough to be competitive at the end of the run. (New Hampshire) is so unique in its characteristics that I really don’t think that you can compare it to anywhere else that we race.”

- NASCAR Wire Service