Ty Gibbs, the 21 year old driver for Joe Gibbs racing. We all know the story thus far. Gibbs rocketed through the ranks in NASCAR, going from ARCA straight to Xfinity and winning at every step and even in his debut in Xfinity at the Daytona RC. He just missed the playoffs in his rookie campaign in a car most everyone had a year’s experience on him in. This painted the picture that the sky was the limit in year two that he would continue to develop and be a force as he got more seat time in the 7th generation NASCAR Cup car.
He certainly started the season on that trajectory. With standout performances early in the season at the series first trips to Phoenix and Bristol, where he led 57 and 137 laps, respectively. He got his first of two poles this year in Charlotte in May, and to that point in the year, he had chalked up four top fives and nine top tens in the first 14 races of the season including the Coke 600. Stats that make you think the title of this article is bare minimum stretching the truth. However, dear reader, this is where the downturn unfortunately begins.
From Gateway through Richmond last week, Gibbs has only managed a single top five (and his lone top ten). That being at the Grant Park 165 in July, where he finished third. Outside of that and a second pole at Pocono that saw his day ended with an expiring engine ended his day prematurely, he’s had a best finish of 11th. As him and the team have struggled to find pace at several tracks. With five finishes of sub 20th in nine races not counting Sonoma where a wreck would end his day after only 16 laps.
This streak of poor runs and finishes minus the highlight of Chicago have taken him from well above the cutline to only 18 points above it as we head into Michigan this weekend where he posted a 15th place time in the limited practice we had. His competition, in the meantime, that being Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, and Bubba Wallace all ran in the top ten lap times. With four drivers vying for only three spots barring a new winner below the cutline, it’s going to be a tight battle between these guys over the final three weeks. Wallace definitely has the most momentum of any of these drivers coming from 44 points below the cutline to above it in just the last three races. Buescher and Chastain have both fallen off a bit from where they were running earlier in the year but not to the extremes that Gibbs has.
While I do think they can figure it out, especially given Gibbs runner-up finish at Darlington earlier this year, which just happens to be the cutoff for the playoff this year. I think the rate at which this team has struggled after such a promising start to the year is very noteworthy and shows that no one is infallible to the “sophomore slump”
Photo Credit: Johnathan Bachman/Getty
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