Joe Gibbs Racing
All seemed to be laid out for JGR heading into the 2017 season and then Carl Edwards walked away from NASCAR and the No. 19 car. Replacing Edwards will be 2016 Xfinity Series champion Daniel Suarez and while he is talented, he isn’t Edwards.
So, will losing Edwards hurt the overall success of JGR in 2017?
In theory it shouldn’t. Losing Edwards will certainly hurt the overall success of the No. 19 car but even that might be minimized if Suarez has himself a quality rookie season. While JGR seems to be the closest of teammates in the Cup Series, losing Edwards shouldn’t impact what the cars do on the track.
The one area where you might see some hiccups is if any rookie mistakes by Suarez result in poor finishes for JGR drivers. Working with Edwards at a superspeedway in 2017 would have been a lot different from what the other JGR drivers will have to deal with when working with Suarez. Aside from that, all systems should still be set to go for JGR.