With four races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, most drivers near the playoff bubble are feeling the heat.
Ty Gibbs is just trying to focus on the task at hand.
Fresh off a championship season in the Xfinity Series, Gibbs arrived in Cup this year as the replacement for Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing. The grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs hasn’t matched the top-five success of his veteran teammates, but he’s ridden a consistent campaign — including six top-10s — to a shot at the playoffs on points.
Gibbs currently sits 17th in the standings, 18 points below Michael McDowell for the final playoff spot. That’s provided hope of a late push into the Round of 16.
If Gibbs fails to make the postseason, it won’t be a huge issue, though. As a rookie, making the postseason isn’t the expectation.
“First of all, it’s [my] rookie season,” Gibbs said when asked about how he’s handling his points situation. “I think that’s what everybody’s been telling me. ‘It’s alright, just do the best you can.’
“I feel like I go into each race the same and just try to complete the mission and do the best I can with my car. Sometimes I don’t do as good with what my car is capable of, so I’ve got to go back and learn. But in times where I can’t really make my car go any faster because [something’s wrong with] the setup, I’ve just got to suck it up and deal with it, basically, and do the best I can with it.”
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Learning to get the best out of his car each week has been key to Gibbs’ success. The North Carolina native made 15 starts in place of the injured Kurt Busch at 23XI Racing last year, but struggled to get out of the midfield. He’s finished 4.4 positions better per race in his first full season with JGR.
“I think it’s a mental game,” the rookie said of the leap up to Cup. “This racing’s really, really hard. I think the Xfinity-Cup jump now is three times as hard as it’s ever been. You have a whole different car and track position means more than anything.”
While growth and improvement have been Gibbs’ key ambitions this season, the 20-year-old Toyota prospect still has a chance to compete for a championship. He’s hovered between 16th and 20th in points since Circuit of The Americas in April, even briefly holding a provisional playoff spot post-Chicago in July before finishes of 34th and 27th in the next two weeks dropped him to 19th.
After a top-five at Pocono Raceway and a top-15 in Richmond, a playoff spot is again within reach. Gibbs feels execution over the next month will be key to snatching it.
“We just have to execute every week,” he said of his team. “I think I didn’t do good last week, and we [still] gained a bunch of points. So [I’ve] just got to do better than that and I think we’ll be in [with] a better shot.
“I have really good confidence in my team and I know that they’re bringing great race cars to the track. We’ll see what we can do.”