BRISTOL, Tenn. — In his 131st NASCAR Cup Series start, Ty Gibbs is finally a winner. The grandson of famed team owner Joe Gibbs, the 23-year-old delivered at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday (April 12), as he led the final 25 laps of the Food City 500 and drove his No. 54 Toyota to victory lane.
Gibbs ascended through the NASCAR ranks rapidly, winning the 2021 ARCA Menards Series championship followed by the 2022 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series title.
His first three Cup seasons featured some successes, including making the playoffs in 2024. Despite leading 853 laps and scoring 21 top fives and 38 top 10s in the first 130 starts, he hadn’t added Cup winner to his resume. Until Sunday.
Fittingly, it came at Bristol. Gibbs has been successful at the 0.533-mile short track in his Cup career. With his win today, it’s the track where he has the most top fives, top 10s and laps led.
The win came in the midst of a lawsuit between Joe Gibbs Racing and its former competition director Chris Gabehart, who has made inflammatory remarks about Ty.
Nevertheless, his win is a special one for the Gibbs family and JGR. Joe, a NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner himself, especially thought of all the people who’ve positively contributed to Ty’s career.
“I think this is for us and the family, just a huge deal,” Joe said in his winning press conference. “I start with there’s so many people to thank. I start first with the Lord. The Lord has blessed our family. Just really appreciate this.
“I want to also just say that Coy, he guided Ty all the way from go-karts to Cup. Coy, I know he’s got a great view of what just happened. Then his uncle is there, too, J.D. I think about those two guys, everything they did for the race team, for us as a family.”
Furthermore, while the team is JGR, it’s a family business, and it goes beyond Joe and Ty’s mother Heather.
“Think for all my grandkids, like Jackson being on the front of the car, the fact that he’s our front tire changer on the No. 54, seeing that and him,” Joe stated about the specialness of his No. 54 team. “We got Miller now in the sport. He’s working hard to be a jack man. Works in the front office with our ministry. We just got Jason that came over.
“So we got four now in our race team, which I’m so excited about. This is our future. This is what we want to do as a family. We love it. … I know I’m kind of rambling. It’s hard to think about all the people that really made this possible.”
First-year crew chief Tyler Allen echoed Joe’s sentiments that the win is important, and arguably needed, for confidence and validation.
“Yeah, I think Ty needed this,” Allen said. “We both needed this. We’re a team. We both needed this confidence boost. I’ve been saying forever when he gets one, he’s going to get a lot. It’s just huge for the team, his confidence. It’s been a really good start to the year.”
Beyond the JGR building, it was a popular win in the garage among the Cup drivers too.
“You never forget your first one, that’s for sure,” Ryan Blaney said in his post-race media scrum. “You know, even though I’m bummed we didn’t win the race, I’m happy that Ty was able to get his first one because I remember what that was like, and I remember the elation and the joy, especially when you’ve come close a handful of times.
“Which he has and, you know honestly, Ty’s dealt with a lot of criticism that I feel like from the outside, and I feel like he’s handled it pretty well. And it’s good to see that he’s been able to prove himself on the racetrack. So, yeah, never forget that first one. I hope they have a good time.”
In addition to Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Riley Herbst and Gibbs’ teammate Christopher Bell were among the other drivers that congratulated Gibbs on his drive to victory lane.
It meant a great deal to the victor.
“Yeah, it’s super cool,” Gibbs said in his race-winning press conference. “Obviously, like I said, those guys have a ton of respect for me, I have a ton of respect for them. To be able to have that is awesome. Always really appreciate it. I grew up watching a lot of these guys in my career. For them to come up and say that to me, being the young person, feel like I wouldn’t believe that. It’s super cool. It’s an honor.”
Under the championship format used over the past few years, Ty would’ve likely clinched his spot in the playoffs. Instead, with the Chase format this year, he’s sixth in points and in solid position to chase a championship when the playoffs begin in the fall.
But today at Bristol, Ty’s biggest takeaway was the trophy, the first one in his Cup career.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
i also think that regardless how much of nascar fan someone is gas over $4/gallon would make me think twice about travel plans plus the minimum number of nights at hotel and food and tickets.
typically the spring race at bristol isn’t going to sell out as the weather is always a huge issue at this race.
NASCAR’s popularity is obviously crashing and burning. That couldn’t be more obvious after seeing all of the empty seats at yesterdays Bristol race. I can understand why there are so many empty seats and PO’d fans. For me that’s because of the horrible decisions that NASCAR is making. I just noticed this morning that 3 of the more popular (for me anyway) upcoming races are on prime network. That is ridiculous. I believe the races are the Coke 600, the Texas race and the All-Star Race. So they think I’m going to pay $150 a year just so that I can watch NASCAR on prime network. I hate to break it to the NASCAR decision makers that they’re dreaming. To me that’s just one of many reasons fans are saying to heck with NASCAR. I hope their viewership and fan attendance at the tracks continues to crash and burn.
Curious as to how the extra 50 horsepower worked. Haven’t seen much on it. I honestly didn’t see any difference.