Getty Ty Gibbs before Coca-Cola 600.
Ty Gibbs is having the best year in his young NASCAR Cup Series career, recording eight top 10s in the first 14 races of the 2024 season, including four top 5s. Despite all that success, it doesn’t mean the 21-year-old hasn’t had his share of frustrations. During the May 25-26 races at Charlotte, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had a pair of aggravating situations.
The first happened in the May 25 Xfinity race where Gibbs was a replacement for Aric Almirola, who was originally scheduled to run the No. 20 car. Late in the race and battling for the lead, the young driver was pushed up high on the track and squeezed into the fence by leader Justin Allgaier, whose car turned backward during the impact and brought out the yellow flag.
“Caution’s out,” Gibbs’ spotter Tony Hirschman informed him over the team radio. “We’ll get a look at it (the car).”
“We’ll get a look at him after,” the driver fired back, referring to his fellow competitor.
A few minutes later Gibbs keyed the radio and offered more thoughts on the incident with the JR Motorsports driver.
“I tried my best there. Thank you for all the hard work. This decrepit man just sends me off of (Turn) 4,” he told his team.
“We got you buddy,” Hirschman responded.
Ty Gibbs Gets Angrier in Cup Series Race
Ty Gibbs was upset during the Xfinity Series race. His anger went to another level during the May 26 Coca-Cola 600. It sparked in the third and what turned out to be final stage when Gibbs once again found himself in a situation similar to the day before. This time, however, it was Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick running the No. 54 car high up the track, which resulted in it brushing up against the wall. The JGR pilot didn’t sugarcoat what he thought about the move.
“Tell that [expletive] I’m going to drive him into the fence,” he said agitatedly over the radio.
“Just focus front. Stay zoned in here,” Hirschman encouraged him. “He’ll make the mistake on somebody else and costs him. He usually does. Focus front. Race our race.”
@TyGibbs was not happy during the Coca-Cola 600 and his spotter calmed him down.
A few minutes later when NASCAR officials put out the caution flag for rain in the area, the driver was still irritated based on the specific instructions given by his spotter.
“Yellow’s out, precipitation. Now, let’s be smart here. Ty,” he called out, trying to get his driver’s attention. “We got a bunch to race here yet. Check up. Get back in behind the No. 11. We don’t need to tear our car up. Get behind the No. 11.”
The conversation ended and the driver made his way to pit road with the rest of the cars and never returned to action after the sanctioning body unexpectedly shortened the race, which Gibbs’ JGR teammate Christopher Bell won.
Gibbs Upset With Bubba Wallace at Dover
Fans who’ve followed Ty Gibbs in his NASCAR journey know his use of foul language isn’t anything new. Weeks earlier he had a solid day in the April 28 Dover race, starting 19th and making his way forward through both stages, ultimately finishing 10th. However, as the case is in any race, it didn’t come without some adversity.
That came in the form of a battle with the No. 23 car of Bubba Wallace in Stage 2 who was aero blocking the No. 54. The driver candidly expressed what he thought about it over the team radio.
“Fine, we’ll [expletive] do it then,” he said, referring to how he’d race the 23XI Racing car. “Alright, [expletive] them. That’s how we’ll [expletive] race, we’ll do it like that.”
Two months and two separate incidents with 23XI Racing cars — another Toyota team, which has had strong ties to JGR since it opened in 2021.
Things that make you go hmm.