Entering the final race of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season at Daytona Int’l Speedway, Ty Gibbs has enjoyed a breakout season aboard the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Third in the Cup Series standings and locked into the Chase following an excellent campaign with victories at Bristol Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway, Gibbs enters Daytona with a surge of momentum.
The 23-year-old has had an excellent year with 10 top fives and 10 top 15s and an average finishing position of 11.7 through 25 starts.
“Yeah, it’s been a great season for me,” Gibbs told NASCAR.com. “And yeah, I’m just glad that you know we can finally show our speed off and it’s been a lot of fun this year, too, so just hoping to go win some more races and put it all together.”
On Thursday and while getting prepared for the rapidly approaching curtain dropping Daytona race, Gibbs elaborated on his year and just what comes next.
“I’m just headed back to the house,” Gibbs said from Charlotte, North Carolina. “I’m about to go on a little recovery ride. I hit it hard riding on the bike this morning and now I’m going to go spin my legs out with my cousins. I had to keep my legs moving. I love it. I love my mountain bike and getting back in good shape.
“I want to be able to be competitive and go race Mountain Bike National Championships next year. That’s kind of all I’ve really been up to, honestly, besides racing. I’ve just been doing all of my bike stuff, really.”
Has anyone from the NASCAR racing community taken notice of Gibbs’ dedication and passion to peddling on two wheels?
“Some do, but not really,” Gibbs explained. “I mean it’s hard for people to understand. They don’t know. It’s so different, too, you know?”
Being in contention for the Chase and now undoubtedly one of the sport’s elite drivers, Gibbs feels good his body of work this season.
“I feel pretty good, you know?” Gibbs said. “I feel like, honestly, that we’ve got a good shot at the title. I’m excited. It’s going to be fun the next 10 weeks of the playoffs. Besides the speedway stuff, we’re really solid everywhere we go for the rest of the year. Just looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to capitalizing on going back to tracks we’ve been to already this year and getting better at that.”
Gibbs will now look to Daytona Int’l Speedway this Saturday and the conclusion of the regular season.
“Yeah, I think Daytona is obviously kind of one of the more challenging ones just because it’s a speedway race and you can kind of get hosed with the wrecks and stuff. But it’s fun and the last couple of races the Toyotas at Daytona have actually been really good. Yeah, we’re looking forward to it, but we’re going to go maximize our results and see what we can do.”
Just how does Gibbs feel inside the car on the 2.5-mile Daytona circuit?
“Yeah, you can, I mean it feels like you’re just going down the 405 and hang a left for about 45 seconds and you come out and do it all again. You’ve got a lot of people around you, too, It can be difficult, but it’s not too physically exerting. It just can get hot sometimes. I think Daytona is sick,” Gibbs said. “Obviously, I don’t really like the restrictor plate stuff. It’s just a different style of racing, so it’s like going from supercross to flat track. It can be difficult sometimes, but it’s pretty fun. I respect the Daytona history a lot. That’s the first place where they really started ripping.”
Gibbs enters Daytona coming off of an eight-race run in which he placed in the top five four times and won a race at Iowa Speedway.
“I definitely think we’ve got a lot of momentum right now,” nodded Gibbs. “You know last week at New Hampshire we didn’t really have a great weekend, and we were still sixth. There is typically a lot of consistency there. Yeah, I’m looking forward to Daytona. It should be really fun.
“Hopefully we can keep it rolling into the Chase. You know it feels good to see the hard work paying off. It just feels good to be able to be competitive. I’ve kind of known the whole time that I can do it. It was about getting the right people around me that I needed to make this happen and I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Gibbs has also been looking at his performance and approach and working at optimizing every variable he can to optimize on track performance.
“I mean yeah, just kind of looking back from last year and seeing what I can do better from those previous races and just stay on top of what we’ve been doing,” Gibbs explained. “We’ve been staying on top of the simulator and trying to maximize it. We have not been changing too much up. My crew chief Tyler [Allen] and everybody that’s been helping my program has been making big gains with our whole deal.
“It’s been huge. And it’s been a lot of fun, too. Yeah, just keep ripping and keep grinding and keep getting after it and stay after it and just keep the momentum going. I’m really happy with everything. I’m really happy with my guys Chedder and all the guys on the ground floor, too. They’ve been killing it and it has been a blast to drive their cars.
“We’re definitely a lot better than last year. We have great people around us. Everybody is super-encouraging. We have a young team, too. Hopefully we can keep working together for a long time. Everybody is just all-in. I really love the team morale, too. Those guys are sick.”
With the Chase beginning Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway, Gibbs and the entire No. 54 team effort are in it to win it.
“Definitely. We’d definitely like to win it and were capable of it, too,” Gibbs said. “It’s so sick to really put it all together and kind of trust the process, too, because that can be difficult at times. That’s just part of life and that’s how you get better, too. Sometimes it takes a little bit of sacrifice, but that’s what makes it all fun in the long run.”
