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In a short span of time, Ty Gibbs has taken massive strides in his NASCAR career – winning the 2021 ARCA Menards Series, clinching the 2022 Xfinity Series title and now making his full-time appearance in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season with Joe Gibbs Racing.
His crew chief Chris Gayle stated that Ty Gibbs has produced great speed in a short time and is encouraging signs in his rookie Cup season. He felt the best thing about Gibbs’ switch from Xfinity to Cup Series was the comfort and familiarity with Joe Gibbs Racing.
In a recent interview with motosports.com, Gibbs said:
“I think it’s going pretty well. I think the nice thing about doing this transition from one series to the other is there is a comfort and familiarity there. I kind of know what Ty expects, his personality, how he reacts to things, even if that’s in the shop or outside of the car. I think that’s the part that has been easy for me.”
He continued:
“I don’t think we’ve had too many chances to really show what we can do yet, but I feel like we’ve shown flashes of speed here and there and that’s encouraging.”
At the start of his rookie season, Ty Gibbs made the most out of a difficult situation. The 20-year-old had a poor qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway but ended up running well in the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished 25th due to a blown tire late in the event.
In the last two races at the Auto Club Speedway and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he finished P16 and P22, respectively.
“It’s a tough spot to be in” – Chris Gayle on Ty Gibbs
Chris Gayle went on to state that Ty Gibbs has won many races in NASCAR’s second-tier series and the competition level is very high in the Cup Series. Gayle gave his thoughts about Gibbs’ rookie season and said:
“It’s a tough spot to be in, especially if you get down on yourself. He’s won all these races in Xfinity and to step up now and the competition level is so high – I don’t want to ever dampen his fire.”
He continued:
“He has that internally and he wants to go be competitive right now. What I basically have to have conversations about is, here is kind of where we should be and we’re still on course, even if we haven’t achieved these super-high lofty expectations that most rookies never do.”
Catch Ty Gibbs in action at the Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 12.
