Ty Gibbs is feeling the weight of his family legacy. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is in his third full season in the NASCAR Cup Series, a competition that he is yet to make his mark in. Even though he has made 92 appearances at the highest level, the driver hasn’t won a single race yet, and patience seemed to be running out from fans, many of whom are already accusing the team’s owner of ‘nepotism’ for giving his grandson the No. 54 Toyota seat.
However, despite plenty of criticism being levied against him, a certain section of the NASCAR community is also backing the youngster. Could their faith in the 2022 Xfinity Series champ pay off in the long run?
Will Ty Gibbs turn his fortunes around?
Everyone expected 2025 to be Ty Gibbs’ breakthrough year. By this time last year, the racer had already secured a 5th place finish in Las Vegas and a third-place outcome at Phoenix Raceway, which were just two of his eight top-five results in the season. The improvement was there for all to see, as the No. 54 Toyota driver ended the year 15th in the drivers’ standings, three spots higher than his debut campaign for Joe Gibbs Racing. However, progress is not linear, a lesson the 22-year-old seems to be learning the hard way if recent results are anything to go by.
With no finishes inside the top 15 for Ty Gibbs in the opening five races, his struggles are becoming difficult to ignore. Acknowledging his underperformance, Joe Gibbs Racing’s co-owner and the 22-year-old’s mother Heather Gibbs told Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, “They’ve (No. 54 team) got some growing pains to learn what each other can do and support and lean on. We put Gabehart in a competition role to lead that group. And we believe even without the results there, behind the scenes, there’s a lot of traction and just a matter of let’s just get a couple good finishes under our belt and let their confidence continue to build.”
The crew chief shuffle could play a big part in his decline. Tyler Allen is a relatively inexperienced crew chief, and having his crew chief from 2024, Chris Gayle, switch teams within the same shop must be tough to watch. While he does have the guidance of multiple time Daytona 500 winning crew chief, Chris Gabehart, in his new role, the results seem to suggest a lot more time is needed.
While Heather Gibbs remains hopeful, it isn’t easy to be optimistic looking at these results. After Ty Gibbs’ 16th-place finish at the Daytona 500, his finishes seem to be painting a pretty uninspiring picture, especially at a time when his teammates are setting the Cup Series alight with their performances. Using the same equipment, Christopher Bell has already won three races in the opening five fixtures while Denny Hamlin finished runner-up in Phoenix. Chase Briscoe qualified in first place at ‘The Great American Race’ on his debut, a feat that was not achieved by a JGR driver since the late 1990s.
It was never going to be easy for Ty Gibbs. Apart from the nepotism accusations, the racer took over at Joe Gibbs Racing after Kyle Busch’s departure, an association that lasted 15 years. While the North Carolina native came with plenty of promise after winning the Xfinity Series, he has struggled to acclimatize at NASCAR’s highest level. The 2025 season is also his first with crew chief Tyler Allen, and the two could find their stride as the season progresses. Despite how uninspiring his results are, it seems like fans are not willing to give up on the 22-year-old just yet.
NASCAR fans back Gibbs to turn his fortunes around
Ty Gibbs has had somewhat of a love-hate relationship with NASCAR fans. Given his family history, many believe that the only reason he has a seat at Joe Gibbs Racing is because the team owner is his grandfather. However, many others also believe that he is supremely talented, despite his struggles in the Cup Series. Acknowledging that something has gone wrong in his development, a Reddit user said, “He looked like he was on a typical young driver trajectory then all a sudden just fell off a cliff. There is gotta be something going on cause he’s not this bad he’s run up front before the guy has talent.”
It’s a sentiment that was echoed by other motorsports enthusiasts as well. Blaming new crew chief Tyler Allen for Gibbs’ underperformance, a NASCAR fan urged the youngster to get some help for a change in mindset. They wrote, “The new CC is bringing bad cars to the track and Ty probably needs to see a sports psychologist because he’s starting to get into his own head…” Even though the North Carolina native has completed two full seasons in the Cup Series, a fan urged others to be patient, saying, “I feel like Gibbs is going through the growing pains of racing in Cup. Some drivers like Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, and William Byron take years to get used to the Cup Series car.”
According to one NASCAR enthusiast, Ty Gibbs’ struggles may not be related to things on the track at all. Believing that the young racer isn’t in the right headspace because of a family tragedy, the fan wrote, “I can’t help but wonder if losing his dad has taken a massive toll on him and he’s still not healed from that completely. I think of myself as a strong person, but if I lost my father the night I won something as big as the Xfinity championship, I don’t think I’d ever fully recover.” His father, Coy Gibbs, tragically passed in 2022 after the biggest triumph of Ty’s career so far, which could have been a life-altering moment for the youngster, according to this fan.
Another motorsports fan speculated that his underperformance at Vegas may have something to do with wrecking in Kyle Larson’s dirt racing series. With confidence playing a major role in performing to the limit in NASCAR, a fan wrote, “I saw him race at High Limit on Saturday night and he took a bad tumble but did get out of the car on his own power. I was wondering if that played any part in his performance yesterday.”
Well, it seems that the NASCAR community has hopped off the Ty Gibbs hate train, and looks to support the young driver. With a slew of changes he has had to get accustomed to in such a short time, the community feels Gibbs still has that winning mentality in him, he just needs to find it soon enough. What do you think? Is Ty Gibbs worthy of a seat at JGR? Or is his underperformance too much to ignore? Let us know in the comments!
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