Ty Gibbs returns to Pocono, site of Cup debut, one year later
LONG POND, Pa. — On July 23, 2022, Ty Gibbs saw his NASCAR career change in one phone call.
That evening, the then-19-year-old was driving back to the airport from Pocono Raceway following a runner-up effort in that day‘s NASCAR Xfinity Series race. The result was strong, but the stewing disappointing was stronger.
Of course, that was only until Gibbs received a call from his mother, Heather, who informed him he would be making his inaugural NASCAR Cup Series start the next day.
“It was definitely a lot of emotions for sure there,” Gibbs told NASCAR.com Saturday.
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While Gibbs‘ whirlwind experience didn‘t hit warp speed until that evening, the story truly begins with Cup qualifying earlier that afternoon. Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing and the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion, crashed during the final round of the session, backing his vehicle hard into the outside SAFER barrier in Turn 3.
Fast forward to the stretch run of the Xfinity race. Gibbs and rival Noah Gragson battled fiercely for the win through the final dozen laps, the former hounding the latter with attempt after attempt to snag the lead. The two manipulated the air like veterans and Gibbs pulled alongside Gragson for the lead on the final lap entering Turn 2.
But Gragson maintained his advantage in the outside lane and managed to clear Gibbs‘ No. 54 Toyota to nab the win.
“I feel like I give a race away there,” Gibbs recalled Saturday. “I should have been way more aggressive and wasn’t, looking back at it with everything that happened. We were really fast. They were on four tires, and we were on no tires anyway, so we were really good.”
Then came the drive back to the airport. Gibbs and friend Drew Dollar were cruising down a Pennsylvania highway when his phone began to ring. The news: Busch was not feeling well and Gibbs — a 19-year-old halfway through his first full-time Xfinity season — might need to substitute at the sport‘s highest level.
“Of course, I was really excited. I‘d never made my Cup Series start yet, right?” Gibbs said. “So I was really, really, really pumped and pulled over some gravel lot on the highway — I don‘t even know what highway — just talking about it.”
Cue the whirlwind. After taking a few minutes to process the opportunity that lay ahead, Gibbs and Dollar got back on the road to catch their plane to Charlotte. The teenager wasted no time getting himself as dialed in as possible, utilizing whatever tools he could without access to the shop or a car to prepare.
“I have a racing simulator at my house that I practice on,” Gibbs said. “We’ve got a lot of really realistic software on there. So it gives me the best feel for what I have and can help my team kind of get my stuff dialed in there. So I used that and we kind of went from there, just trying to get as much time as I can before going to the track to have the best feeling like it for the car.”
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Prior to race-day morning on Sunday, Gibbs had never sat in a Next Gen car, let alone been properly fitted or turned the vehicle on.
That process came quickly while also dealing with plenty of media attention surrounding the No. 45 Toyota and its hauler. There was little time, if any, to soak in the moment.
But crew chief Billy Scott, engineer John Vining and Busch all worked to keep Gibbs as cool, calm and prepared for the last-minute Cup debut of a highly-touted young racer — who also happens to be the grandson of NASCAR Hall of Famer and Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs.
“We were just talking about what the situation was, what we’re gonna do,” Gibbs said. “We’re looking at a lot of data so to get me understanding where I needed to be on the track and then went out there and kind of just did it.
“They talked me through every bit of it. So all credit to them and really cool to make my first Cup start with Billy Scott, somebody that’s been around and had a lot of success in the racing world.”
“Just do it,” was Busch‘s advice — appropriate for a team so closely connected to Nike through the Jordan Brand, but also apt for Gibbs‘ situation and so little time to truly get ready for his debut.
And so he did it. Gibbs walked away with an impressive 16th-place finish in his inaugural start around a track known quite well for its tricky, three-turn, asymmetrical layout.
The circumstances were far from ideal. Busch has yet to compete again, and Gibbs closed the 2022 Cup season filling in at the Cup level, kicking off his Cup career with three consecutive top-20 finishes, including a 10th-place result at Michigan.
But Pocono was the kickstarter — one that gave him 15 races of premier-level experience and proved to Joe Gibbs Racing he was ready to jump to the Cup Series full-time in 2023 for his rookie campaign.
The leap has not been easy, but Gibbs didn‘t really expect it to be. Yet the driver of the No. 54 Camry, now 20 years old, sits 19th in points, 41 markers beneath the elimination line to qualify for the NASCAR Playoffs.
An early spring stretch of four consecutive top-10 finishes was impressive, but he‘s scored just one since the Bristol dirt race in April, a ninth-place effort at the Chicago Street Race earlier this month. It‘s an adjustment for Gibbs, who scored seven victories in Xfinity last season and won in his 2021 series debut, but one he isn‘t shocked by.
“It’s a big jump,” Gibbs said. “And everybody’s kind of had that same thing, so it’s expected and it’s, you know, part of the plan. Just gotta keep working hard and do the best you can and (results) usually kind of come along and then it starts getting normal again.
“You‘ve got to realize, like, you go from Xfinity and you have three really great guys in really great cars. And you go to Cup and you have probably 22 guys that are really, really good and really good cars.”
Gibbs will start 11th in Sunday‘s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). And this time, there were no surprises.
