This one was for Dad!
When Ty Gibbs climbed out of his race car after winning his first career NASCAR Cup race Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, the absolute first thing he did was he paused, pointed to the heavens, and expressed his thanks to his late father, Coy Gibbs, for helping to guide him to a Cup victory lane for the first time.
“To be in this position is great,” Ty said of his overtime triumph. “I’d love for my father to have seen this. I knew he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well.”
It’s not surprising that the younger Gibbs paid tribute to his late father. Coy was Ty’s everything, teaching and coaching him from a young, aspiring go-kart pilot on how to become a race winner and eventually an Xfinity champion in 2022.
Sadly, the second of Joe Gibbs’ two sons joined his brother JD in Heaven prematurely, both at the age of 49. JD passed away in 2019 due to a degenerative neurological disease, while in an incredibly sad twist of fate, Coy was found dead in his hotel room the following morning after celebrating Ty’s Xfinity crown the night before. The coroner ruled that Coy died in his sleep due to natural causes.
Ty lost his father in tragic fashion: Died in his sleep after seeing his son win the Xfinity Championship in 2022
Ty Gibbs has spent hours upon hours telling anyone and everyone who would listen how important his father had been to him. Sure, Grandpa Joe, the team owner, believed in his young grandson, even letting two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch go and not renewing his contract so as to open a spot for Ty in Joe Gibbs Racing’s four-driver Cup lineup.
Admittedly, Joe’s move looked as if it were a decision based upon nepotism and not necessarily on talent. While Ty did well in Xfinity, earning 12 wins in 66 starts in NASCAR Cup’s junior series, his ability to make the jump to Cup at the seemingly far-too-young age of only 20 years old left many wondering if Grandpa Joe was putting family over logic.
And for the longest while, it seemed as if nepotism won the argument. In the first 130 starts of his Cup career, his best finish had been second – once at Darlington and the other at the Chicago Street Race. He came so close but never seemed to be able to seal the deal.
Also, in his first three full-time Cup seasons, Ty qualified just once for the playoffs and was a quick exit after the first round.
There was also a number of castigating comments both outside and even inside the team that Ty was given special treatment that JGR’s three other Cup drivers – Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell – did not get. Well, that’s understandable, to a degree, as they didn’t have their own guy to call Grandpa Joe.
But getting back to the way Ty climbed out of his race car Sunday, and the first thing he did was to point to the clouds, was not a surprise. He comes from an extremely religious family, led, naturally, by Grandpa Joe, as well as Ty’s mother and Coy’s widow, Heather.
What this means for Grandpa Joe
Joe Gibbs has had a Midas-like touch in everything he’s touched professionally, earning three Super Bowl championships as head coach of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, as well as five NASCAR Cup championships (two each by Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch, and one by Bobby Labonte).
The elder Gibbs, now 85 years old, has been a lifelong man of deep faith, great character, internal strength and is someone who has been virtually untouched by scandal (the current lawsuit vs. former crew chief and competition director Chris Gabehart notwithstanding).
Now he has finally seen his grandson fulfill his prophecy of being a NASCAR Cup winner. The next step, which potentially could take a bit more time and effort, is to become a Cup champion. But Joe has never wavered in his faith in his grandson, and after Sunday’s win, will probably double down his efforts to get his grandson that championship still in his lifetime.
For all the close-but-no-cigar finishes he’s endured over his previous 130 Cup starts, at times you could see Ty’s talent and brilliance. But you could also see his mistakes – and there were certainly plenty of them. But what do you expect from a kid who only turns 24 this October? Youngsters are going to make mistakes.
“I mean, getting your a– kicked kind of sucks,” Gibbs said. “But I really love it. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t be doing it, maybe doing something else. I just truthfully love it. Keep staying after it.”
But for every mistake, crash, conflict with a fellow driver, or criticism he received – and in most cases, rightly so – you could see the younger Gibbs slowly developing as a driver, a better driver, that is. While there were times, say, two or even one year ago, one might wonder if he would ever win a Cup race, there were other times that you could tell it wasn’t a matter of if he would ever win a Cup race, but rather when.
Ty Gibbs now joins some of the biggest names to ever win at Bristol
Sunday, at one of the toughest tracks on the circuit, the track that guys like Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, Kurt and Kyle Busch and others have dominated, Ty Gibbs finally added his name to Bristol’s long list of winners.
He did so by playing a game of patience with guys around him, including beating eventual runner-up Ryan Blaney by 0.055 seconds, the closest margin of victory at Bristol since Rusty Wallace beat Ernie Irvan by one foot in April 1991.
When the race went into overtime and even with Blaney seemingly having the edge in attacking the bottom line better than Gibbs had with the top line, Gibbs could have tried to dip low – but instead he finished the dance with the same partner he started with, that same high line.
And when it came time to reach the checkered flag, he was right there to stake his claim to Bristol royalty – even though he initially didn’t seem to care if he won or lost.
“Honestly, I didn’t really know or care if I was going to win or not,” he said on the frontstretch after climbing out of his No. 54 JGR Toyota Camry, the first time a car emblazoned with that number has won a Cup race in nearly 50 years (Lennie Pond won the only race of his career in 1979 at Talladega).
Gibbs now joins Dale Earnhardt Sr., Rusty Wallace, Ernie Irvan and Kurt Busch in earning his first Cup career win at the .533-mile so-called “Last Great Coliseum”.
“It’s super cool,” Gibbs said. “Those are the most bada– guys there ever was. Kurt having his first win, me having my first win, it’s super cool.”
Gracious in defeat, Blaney gives kudos to Gibbs
“Gave it my best shot the last restart,” said Blaney, who led 190 laps, second most behind third-place finisher Kyle Larson’s 284 laps. “Got a good restart. Was close, but just couldn’t get it done. I really wanted to win here. I came close. But congrats to Ty. He’s been really close. Nothing is more special than your first Cup win. It’s pretty cool to win at this place.”
Tyler Reddick finished fourth but remains atop the Cup standings by 62 points, while Chase Briscoe wound up fifth. The win moves Gibbs up to fourth in the Cup season standings, 105 points behind Reddick.
There’s an old saying in NASCAR that the first win is always the hardest for a driver. But Gibbs doesn’t necessarily look at it that way. Even if Sunday was a one-and-done and he never wins again in his Cup career, Sunday was a day he’ll never forget.
“One win doesn’t change my career not one bit,” he said. “I knew I was capable of it. My team, obviously I know they’re capable of it.
“Yeah, doesn’t mean anything. I could win the next five or just win this one and be done for a long time. It doesn’t mean anything.
“I don’t think one win’s going to change my life or my career. I mean, I have a great life after this. You know what I mean? One win doesn’t change it.
“I know (opposing drivers) have a lot of respect for me, (and I have a) lot of respect for them. It’s not just coming up there and telling me a good job. I already know that. It’s super cool to have that. It’s an honor.”
