Was anyone surprised at Chris Gabehart’s opinions on Ty Gibbs?
In case you’ve spent the first part of this season under a rock outside of race days, welcome to the shitshow. We have an entirely new legal action underway between Joe Gibbs Racing and Spire Motorsports, with former JGR competition director-turned Spire Chief Motorsports Officer Chris Gabehart in the middle.
JGR alleges that Gabehart stole proprietary car setup data and claims it has evidence to prove it. Gabehart and Spire say no such thing occurred.
The latest piece of drama to trickle out of the court filings, though, concerns Gabehart’s experience working with Ty Gibbs and the No. 54 JGR NASCAR Cup Series team.
Gabehart claims Gibbs was not held to the same standards as other drivers and that he received more than preferential treatment from his family members and team owners, Heather and Joe Gibbs.
My only question, though: Why did anyone act like this was a surprise? His last name is Gibbs, and he races for Joe Gibbs Racing. Nepotism got him that seat, in large part, and I have a hard time understanding why anyone thought it wasn’t nepotism keeping him in the same seat.
Specifically, Gabehart alleged that even in routine decisions as competition director, the organizational dysfunction limited his ability to perform effectively in that role. He had to report to Gibbs, other family members or other members of the organization far too often for his liking, and thus took the job at Spire, which has now been named as a second defendant in this case.
But does any of this information about the Gibbs camp mean that the court case is any less valid? No, not really. Gabehart admitted to taking photos of a JGR Excel spreadsheet with his phone but maintains he did not use them at Spire. That’s where the legal hitch here lies, no matter what direction the trial swings in.
Will this be settled? More than likely. Will many people try make it go away? Almost certainly. Will we ever think that Ty Gibbs isn’t NASCAR’s latest posterchild for nepotism at large? Absolutely not, but thanks for the information, Chris.
Could COTA be a breakout weekend for Connor Zilisch?
Last season, Connor Zilisch completely dominated the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series field. Now, in his rookie Cup season, we’re hitting the point in the season schedule where his talent should shine through a bit more than his luck.
Many believe this weekend to be a foregone conclusion and have already picked Shane van Gisbergen as the winner simply because we’re turning right at Circuit of the Americas. If this were 2025, I’d probably even agree with them. This isn’t 2025, though, and Zilisch and van Gisbergen now share pretty identical cars.
That being the case, if you’re Zilisch, this weekend serves as a chance to cement yourself as a key player in Chase contention early on in the season. Forget Rookie of the Year at this point. If I’m Zilisch, I’m already thinking about competing for a championship with a win this weekend.
Of course, van Gisbergen won’t go quietly. I imagine we’ll see the two battling up front for the last segment of the race, barring anything cataclysmic happening during, with the addition of an AJ Allmendinger or Chase Elliott for good measure. This could absolutely be the welcome-to-the-big-leagues moment for Zilisch, though, and he knows it.
Will Carson Hocevar continue to keep himself out of victory lane?
I was having a conversation with a friend this week about their favorite drivers. He’s a Carson Hocevar guy and said he reminded him of watching Dale Earnhardt race other drivers into the ground for a shot at winning. I pushed back on this point, as I do with everyone else who makes it, and said, “Dale could do that because, when he did move someone, he won a lot of the time.”
Hocevar is no such winner, yet. But his fans will tell you that it is everything short of inevitable that he finds his way to victory lane. In fact, that’s been the message for almost a year now. And would you believe that it still hasn’t happened?
Sure, he’s been close, and I applaud him for that. I’d even go as far as to say that I enjoy his personality and the way that he races. But if we’re going to compare him to someone who is one of the best to ever do it, can we at least wait until he finds his way to victory lane in the Cup Series, for both his sake and our own?
Labeling him as the greatest thing since sliced bread this early on rarely works out well in any driver’s career, because their development is rushed. Sponsors believe they should be winning when in reality, they’re still developing, and all of a sudden, a young driver has to switch teams and relearn an entirely new organization too early.
Hocevar’s antics both on and off the track will almost certainly cost him more friends on the grid than he will gain, and that reality is more than likely going to bite him more than a few times as the season rolls forward. One thing is for certain, though: If he keeps coming up short, there will never be a breakout for the young, exciting driver, and that might be the saddest ending out of them all.
How did Ford and Chevrolet miss the boat on Keelan Harvick?
It feels weird saying this, but when 13-year-old Keelan Harvick signed a seven-year deal with Toyota earlier this week, my first thoughts went to Chevrolet and Ford, who were the only two active manufacturers that Keelan’s dad, Kevin Harvick, ever drove for.
When the signing was announced, social media comment sections filled with this very question. So how exactly did Chevy and Ford lose out on what should have been a can’t-miss prospect? The answer is really simpler than you think: Toyota’s development system is just better.
In Ford’s case, no such development system really exists in the O’Reilly Series. There are only two teams running the Blue Oval in that series this year. Granted, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has a few more Fords in its ranks, but nowhere near the number of options that Chevy or Toyota have in the upper series.
If Ford was never a player, why not Chevrolet? It essentially has the O’Reilly Series on lockdown and possesses some of, if not the most popular faces in the sport at the Cup level. However, the Chevrolet organizational structure is a bit top heavy, with a few teams in each series churning out the most performance and others falling flat.
Toyota is the best bang for your buck in terms of getting to the Cup Series in a hurry right now. Undoubtedly, the Harvicks both saw this and decided that was the path they wanted to take. Still, it isn’t going to make reading Harvick on a Toyota any less strange.
Tanner Marlar is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated’s OnSI Network, a contributor for multiple automotive news outlets, an award-winning sports columnist and talk show host, and a PhD. student at a premier college of media and mass communication. Tanner began working with Frontstretch in 2022, covering the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.
gibbs given preferential treatment. and how many races has he won in cup?
As a grandfather myself I would give my grandson every opportunity i possibly could to succeed Why does this surprise anyone RCR did the same thing Not saying it’s right but blood is thicker than water
Completely understandable. Still, there are ways to do it without letting the inmates (Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon) run the asylum (JGR, RCR).
I work for a very old family owned company. There are currently a handful of family members working here. The owners are retired, but installed leadership above the current family employees, in the hopes they’d eventually learn and earn their way to the top. Sure, the current family employees had an inside track to meaningful positions, but they were given nothing beyond this, and had to prove themselves to attain more responsibility.
There will always be some awkwardness there, as obviously those currently at the very top tier are not family, and firing a family member would never be on the table. But, ownership doesn’t meddle in daily operations, and it’s clear that what current leadership says is the final word. Have to say, I’m impressed by the current family employees. Clearly their elders instilled a sense of humility in them. In working with them, there is no feeling of entitlement there, contrary to what we see in Ty.
Joe Gibbs in particular is culpable here. It should have been clear from day one that Ty would need to conduct himself in a professional manner, and that he needs to adhere to instruction by those above, irrespective of their last name. Joe should have known better. He did JGR and arguably even Ty a disservice by allowing Ty to act out as he does all too frequently.
If Joe Gibbs isn’t careful, he’s going to find himself second fiddle at Toyota to 23XI, just as Childress has fallen down Chevy’s totem pole.
Little Gibbs should be worried about keeping sponsors who expect results based on what the pitch is.
Gabehart had an escape clause in his contract which says something about his concern in taking the job. Another thought…why did Truex leave? This will be an easy case to solve. Either he took the materials or he did not and I’m guessing that will be pretty cut and dry.
As for Keelan Harvick, neither Ford nor Chevrolet have driver development programs that go back to that age. In fact one of those has said over and over again that they don’t develop drivers. And it may be less costly to just buy them away from Toyota as there are only so many seats.
Zilisch has been running well and has gotten caught up in other people’s mess in the first 2 races. His goals have been rational for the start of the season and he will struggle up through Memorial Day just figuring out the car in different situations. Neither he, not Hocevar are broken and need no fixing.
By the time Keelan gets to Cup daddy will probably be retired and they both realize the path to a winning Cup ride is with the Toys. By that time, the Toys should have a few more competitive rides available.