Denny Hamlin said prior to this weekend that the Toyota’s weren’t up to par yet in terms of race pace. While they won 19 of the 36 races a year ago and put three drivers in the Championship 4, heading into Darlington on Wednesday night, they were just 1-for-5 with their lone victory on a superspeedway in the season opener at Daytona.

Then, they found speed. JGR went 1-2 with Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch finishing first or second respectively. Throw in Erik Jones and you get three of their four drivers coming home in the top five and all four in the top 10. Combined, they led 55 laps overall. Prior to Wednesday night, they had led just 108 laps all year. 93 of those 108 laps were led in the season opening Daytona 500 at that. The only laps that they’ve led since then was all by Martin Truex Jr. who led one lap in Las Vegas, three in Fontana and 11 in Phoenix. On Wednesday, three of their four drivers led at least one lap.

Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 was supposed to be their time to shine again. They had won two straight races on the Charlotte Motor Speedway oval including four of the last five. Their last three wins were dominating performances.

Hamlin though, warned that maybe the speed showed on Wednesday was a mirage. Wednesday’s race was under the lights. The end of the Daytona 500, the other race that they’ve won? Under the lights. The other four races, the ones that they’ve looked pedestrian? Day races.

Sunday, well which would win out?

“(That) was by far the best race that we had as far as being competitive on speed,” said Hamlin after his win this past week. “So, I don’t know what that says because it was a night race. There was more on-throttle time. I think we’re still behind; I don’t think we can sugarcoat it in any kind of way and say we’re in good shape now.”

His teammate Martin Truex Jr agreed on that assessment.

“I think we’re right there,” said Truex of speed. “We’re probably not the strongest team right now. I don’t think our cars are the fastest cars out there. I think if you look at the stats, we’ve had some really good race cars with the 19 (team).

The ‘600 was run mostly under the lights and Toyota’s shined for a while. Hamlin, had his pre race issues, but the other three cars were some of the best out there. Track position was key, which allowed Alex Bowman to dominate the first half of the event, but once Truex found the lead, he was gone. Then, when he lost the clean air, he was back to being pedestrian again. He finished seventh.

“It was a long and typical 600,” Truex said after earning his eighth top 10 in his last nine Charlotte tries. “You battle the car all night long and you just keep making adjustments and trying to stay up with the race track. The Bass Pro Toyota was really strong when we started off and I was able to pick off a few spots and work our way towards the front. I really rode there behind the 88 (Alex Bowman) for the first two stages. I felt like at times we were stronger than he was and just couldn’t make the move. Track position was crazy important tonight with the cooler temperatures and everybody having a year under their belts now with this car.

“Everybody is getting so close and they changed the tire and it was way different. It just felt really hard and had really low grip and it was really bouncy. We tried to keep up with the track, and at times, I felt like we were the best car. When we could get the lead, we could pull away. We had the lead late there in the last stage – early in the last part of the last stage and just had some trouble in the pits. It seems like every week we’re having a little bit of hiccups here and there and it set us back. The guys are working hard trying to get better.”

Truex, led 131 laps in a fifth place effort in 2015. He led 392 laps in his win in 2016 and 116 more in a victory last year. He led 233 laps in a third place effort in 2017. Tonight? 87 laps but his second worst finish in his last nine tries.

Jones, steadily climbed all night and was a top five driver. He faded to 12th though. Busch, was a top 10 driver all night and says he “stole” a top five with finishing fifth.

“During the middle stages of the race, I thought we were really fast,” said Busch. “I feel like we had a great M&M’S Red, White, and Blue Camry and ran up front and got back up front from having to go to the back. But we put tires on it and it was never the same after that from about lap 280 or 290 when we put tires on it and it wasn’t the same as it was before that. We were lucky to steal a fifth-place finish out of it today and we’ll have to go back to work and figure out some things to make our stuff better for when we come back on Wednesday and get back after it.”

What’s concerning for Busch is, he keeps saying he “stole” finishes. He didn’t have the speed on the west coast but was in the top three in each of the last two races out there. He was runner-up in Darlington 2 and now fifth on Sunday night. That’s four top fives in his last five starts on the season. But, he’s failed to lead a lap since Daytona. He led 377 laps in his win in this race in 2018 and 79 laps last year.

With Wednesday night’s race being under the lights, can they find the speed to win now? They for much of the race had three of their four cars running inside of the top 10.