Jonathan Hassler was introduced to the Kobayashi Maru test on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
For those who are not fans of Star Trek, this is basically a no-win scenario exercise that basically just tests your decision-making prowess when presented with two options that were not going to produce a victory.
Now, to be fair to the test, Ryan Blaney nearly drove the Penske No. 12 car back to the front anyway but his crew chief faced an unenviable position when the penultimate caution flew with 24 laps to go.
There were 13 cars on the lead lap and the decision from those teams to pit or not to pit is often dictated by what the leaders choose. If the leader stays out, the second-place team frequently comes down and drags everyone else with them. If the leader pits, there will always be someone willing to take clean air and track position.
Blaney and Hassler dominated the second half of the Food City 500 but faced that scenario and chose to pit. They took four tires and were leap-frogged by Kyle Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels, who dominated the first half of the race, by taking two tires. Tyler Reddick stayed out with Gibbs and put up a valiant fight when the race resumed.
Blaney got by Larson and Reddick but just couldn’t find a way to make enough speed on the bottom while Gibbs ripped the top.
“I’ll pick it apart a little bit, but like, I don’t know, it was so hard to hit the bottom in (Turn) 3 with pace,” Blaney said during his post-race scrum. “I mean, so many guys missed it all day and I’ll probably think about corner more than any.
“I don’t know if I could have done anything differently. I had to commit and I just probably missed my entry by like a foot and missed the whole bottom. Any slip up and it’s a handful so I’ll think about it a little bit tonight and forget about it tomorrow.”
Hassler isn’t going to spend a lot of time questioning his decision either because there wasn’t a lot he could pick apart either.
“We had talked about this exact scenario, where the field will kind of split in half and that makes you a sitting duck as the leader,” Hassler told Motorsport.com afterwards. “They’re just going to do the opposite of whatever you do.
“Not a lot of guys came down pit road there so we had decided to do two tires honestly and when not that many came down, took four, and thought we were in a pretty good position. Talking to Ryan before the restart, we felt we were in a good position to get by the 54, but I wouldn’t change anything.”
Again, what makes this decision all the more dynamic is that this isn’t just Hassler versus Gibbs crew chief Tyler Allen. Daniels and Larson’s two tire call factored into the results too.
“Honestly, our first reaction was to consider staying out because I knew many would,” Daniels told Motorsport.com. “But at the same time, I thought we were going to be better playing a little bit of offense rather than just being stuck completely in defense.
“Would four have been better for our car than just right (sides)? I don’t really know but we were obviously able to hang right there with the 12.”
For his part, Allen said there were a lot of options from his war room.
“Not quite that simple,” Allen said. “We were discussing over that green flag stint what we would do at any given point. As the laps wound down, you get the caution, you know you're going to have seven, eight or nine caution laps for a 15-lap run. I'd much rather have control of the race than be trying to go catch somebody. So that was really the biggest factor in making that decision.”
And Gibbs executed by holding off two former Cup Series champions who each had a tire advantage.
It's super cool. Ryan and Kyle, I have a ton of respect for them. To be able to race them is awesome. Honestly, I was just happy that the race was sick at the end and we were all sliding around and racing for the win. I think that was super cool. Hopefully it put on a great show for the fans.
“Super cool,” Gibbs said. “I've watched those guys a lot of my life in NASCAR. To race with them is awesome, it's an honor.”
And despite to Kobayashi Maru decision not working out, Hassler maintains he has one of the best overall teams in the sport, with some work to do on their pit crew, but it’s a good start.