Ty Gibbs 'back in the mix' after season-best finish at Bristol
Ty Gibbs shared his honest thoughts after securing a top-five finish at the recently concluded Food City 500 race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After having a disappointing start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the young Joe Gibbs Racing driver had a sigh of relief in the last couple of weeks, driving the No. 54 Toyota.
In his third full-time Cup season, the grandson of Joe Gibbs is yet to celebrate a win in the victory lane. While the past weekend was headlined by Kyle Larson, who in his attempt for a tripleheader Bristol sweep, managed two wins, the 22-year-old Gibbs also caught attention with a 2025 season-best finish at the short track. Moreover, it was also his back-to-back top-10 finish so far.
Speaking with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Ty Gibbs addressed the end of a bad stretch after an eventful Bristol weekend. He said:
"It's really good. You know, we've a good day. I think we're, you know, very capable of running better than this and being on the top stop. But it was a good day for us to, you know, kind of get back in the mix and get back up here where we belong. But I'm very happy."
"Thank you to Monster Energy for coming on board always and always being with me and all my racing. So appreciate them, appreciate my team, Tyler Allen, my engineers did a great job. My spotter Tony Hirschman did a great job today. So it was good," he added.
While the young driver Gibbs acknowledged the bad slump and has shown confidence moving forward, the NASCAR Hall of Famer and owner of JGR, Joe Gibbs, admitted to his grandson's tough times in the Cup Series.
"It's a big deal for us": Joe Gibbs on grandson Ty Gibbs' recent NASCAR slump
NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs weighed in on the No. 54 driver Ty Gibbs' underwhelming performances before the past weeks. After consecutively finishing outside the top 20, the Charlotte native Ty had a streak of good runs in his last three starts.
In a conversation with the media on March 31, Joe Gibbs spoke about the rough patch of their young JGR driver and said:
"There's no secret here. We've gone through a tough time to start the year. Everything that's happened to us, not much gone our way. When that happens, I know what I'm studying through all of that. That is who surrounds us, who is there with us, who is working their rear-end off at the race shop to try and get us back."
"Those are the people that I just really, really appreciate. Anytime you go through a tough time, for me, that is something I really want to look at. Who are the guys there. We got some of those guys that are leading us out of this. It's a big deal for us," added Joe Gibbs.
Nevertheless, Ty Gibbs has shown progress in the last couple of weeks and has improved with each passing week. The No. 54 team will return to the Talladega Superspeedway race for the Jack Link's 500 event on April 27.