The tide continued to turn in the right direction for Ty Gibbs Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. A third-place finish was a season-best for Gibbs and the No. 54 team. It was also his second top-10 finish and second consecutive in the NASCAR Cup …
The tide continued to turn in the right direction for Ty Gibbs Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
A third-place finish was a season-best for Gibbs and the No. 54 team. It was also his second top-10 finish and second consecutive in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“It was a good day,” Gibb said. “I was kind of managing the race and figuring out the way we needed to be. It was fun. I had a blast. We’ve definitely made an improvement. Thank you to Monster Energy, SAIA, and Toyota. It was fun.”
Two weeks ago, Gibbs was 31st in the championship standings. The team, under the direction of new crew chief Tyler Allen, got off to a rocky start, finishing 25th or worse in four out of seven races.
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A quiet day at Darlington Raceway netted a ninth-place finish. He qualified 11th and managed an average running position of 13th.
Bristol was a sixth-place qualifying effort. Gibbs averaged a seventh-place running position before ultimately finishing third.
“It’s definitely really nice,” Gibbs said of the recent positive stretch. “We had a really good clean day, so you know, really happy to have that. It’s been a pretty chaotic start to our year. I think we’re back where we’re going to run.
“Really excited for the future and to get back racing after this off weekend. I think we’re really capable of winning a lot this year, so we’ll see what we can do and go out and have a fun time [and] have a blast.”
Ty Gibbs was fastest in Saturday night’s practice for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. Gibbs topped the board at 64.199mph (14.019s). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was in the first group of drivers who hit the track for practice when all the …
Ty Gibbs was fastest in Saturday night’s practice for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
Gibbs topped the board at 64.199mph (14.019s). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was in the first group of drivers who hit the track for practice when all the quickest times were set.
Ryan Preece was second fastest with his new RFK Racing team at 63.681mph. Ty Dillon was third at 63.506mph; Kyle Larson, fourth at 63.501mph and Riley Herbst, fifth at 63.501mph.
Noah Gragson ran sixth fastest at 63.492mph; Bubba Wallace, seventh at 63.470mph; Alex Bowman, eighth at 63.291mph; Daniel Suarez, ninth at 63.287mph and Austin Cindric rounded out the top 10 at 63.256mph.
Reigning series champion Joey Logano was 19th fastest in practice. Tim Brown, the 12-time Bowman Gray track champion looking to make his Cup Series debut with Rick Ware Racing, was 36th. Burt Myers, also a local Bowman Gray star with 11 track championships, was 38th.
The field of 39 was split into three groups for two practice rounds at eight minutes each.
No significant incidents occurred.
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The third session on track served as qualifying to set the lineup for the heat races. Groups had four minutes on track, with each practice group split in half for clearer track — six groups of either six or seven drivers at a time.
Heat No. 1:
1. Chase Elliott
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Justin Haley
5. Ross Chastain
6. Josh Berry
7. Noah Gragson
8. Kyle Busch
9. Austin Dillon
10. Ty Dillon
Heat No. 2:
1. Chris Buescher
2. Chase Briscoe
3. Shane van Gisbergen
4. Zane Smith
5. Bubba Wallace
6. Kyle Larson
7. Daniel Suarez
8. Erik Jones
9. Cody Ware
10. Garrett Smithley
Heat No. 3:
1. Denny Hamlin
2. Joey Logano
3. William Byron
4. Alex Bowman
5. Carson Hocevar
6. Ty Gibbs
7. AJ Allmendinger
8. Riley Herbst
9. Tim Brown
10. Burt Myers
Heat No. 4:
1. Tyler Reddick
2. Christopher Bell
3. Austin Cindric
4. Cole Custer
5. Todd Gilliland
6. Ryan Preece
7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
8. John Hunter Nemechek
9. Michael McDowell
NEXT: Heats begin at 8:30 p.m. ET and will set the first 20 of 23 drivers for Sunday evening’s Clash field.
Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs will both be working with a new crew chief beginning with the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, after Joe Gibbs Racing announced several personnel moves Friday. Chris Gabehart, who had worked with Hamlin on the No. 11 team for …
Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs will both be working with a new crew chief beginning with the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, after Joe Gibbs Racing announced several personnel moves Friday.
Chris Gabehart, who had worked with Hamlin on the No. 11 team for the last six seasons, has been named competition director. Gabehart and Hamlin won 22 races together, including two in the Daytona 500. The duo also made three consecutive appearances in the Championship 4.
“I am very thankful for the opportunities that Joe Gibbs Racing has continued to provide me for my entire tenure here and cannot say enough about how much I have enjoyed and appreciated my time with Denny and the entire 11 team,” Gabehart said. “They have all taught me so much about not only how to race at the top of the NASCAR Cup Series but also how to lead a great group of talented professionals. In my next opportunity, I am as excited as I have ever been to work with all our talented drivers, crew chiefs, teams, and partners to help focus all our efforts toward making 2025 one of the best seasons Joe Gibbs Racing has ever had.”
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Chris Gayle will assume the role of Hamlin’s crew chief. Gayle had been paired with Ty Gibbs on the No. 54 team the last two seasons.
“Denny is obviously a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” said Gayle. “I’m looking forward to working with him and the guys on the No. 11 team. He and Gabehart have established an incredible culture that is a very good barometer for our other drivers and teams to strive to match. I have all the confidence in the world we can hit the ground running and continue the success that this group is accustomed to in 2025.”
Gayle led the Xfinity Series program at Joe Gibbs Racing to 10 wins with four different drivers in 2021. He and Gibbs won the series of championships the following year before moving into the Cup Series together in 2023. The duo earned a spot in the Cup Series postseason for the first time in 2024 and finished 15th in the standings.
The new crew chief for Gibbs has not yet been announced.
“We have a lot of pride in the depth of talent we have throughout our organization,” said Joe Gibbs. “Chris Gabehart will now be an asset across all four of our teams as competition director and we thought it was important to have him transition into his new role immediately. Chris Gayle will bring his own perspective to the 11 team while also maintaining the consistency and continuity they have developed with Denny over the past several years.
“While we are still in the process of finalizing the new crew chief for the 54 team, we believe all these moves ultimately make our team stronger as we prepare for 2025.”
William Byron and Ty Gibbs were close to getting their NASCAR Cup Series seasons back on track with a win at Michigan on Monday. In the end, the pair got trapped battling each other while Tyler Reddick drove away, but their results were a step in …
William Byron and Ty Gibbs were close to getting their NASCAR Cup Series seasons back on track with a win at Michigan on Monday. In the end, the pair got trapped battling each other while Tyler Reddick drove away, but their results were a step in the right direction.
Byron was running a distant second to Reddick when Martin Truex Jr. slid up into the wall late and pushed Monday’s rain-postponed race to overtime. He took the bottom of the front row for the ensuing restart and muscled his way to a narrow lead with help from a pushing Brad Keselowski before another caution flew.
That positioned Byron to pick the outside, preferred lane for the final restart. He had Keselowski behind him again, too. But the Hendrick Motorsports star lost the top spot to Reddick through Turns 1 and 2 after Keselowski slowed behind him — an issue Keselowski said was tied to his engine briefly shutting off.
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“I’ll relive that restart and what lane to choose overnight, for sure,” Byron admitted afterward. “It seems like always, as the leader, you want to take the top. But I’ve gotten beat twice here by the bottom and I had the lead on the bottom, barely, over (Reddick). But he had a better car than us, so he was a little bit faster. “
In search of his first win, Gibbs fired off behind Reddick for both of the final two restarts. He nearly followed Reddick past Byron and through to second in double overtime but couldn’t quite clear his No. 24 Chevrolet off Turn 2 and ended up falling back to third. The pair stayed in second and third for the final lap, crossing the line within a second of Reddick as he scored his second win of 2024.
“I feel like we were in contention, for sure,” Gibbs said. “I needed to get up sooner off (Turn) 2 to clear the No.24. Just missed it by a little bit, then after that it takes a lap to get wound back up after you lose momentum.”
Byron could have used the victory to add to his playoff point total going in to the postseason. He has three wins, but entered Michigan seventh in points and unlikely to catch many of the drivers ahead of him for regular season bonus points. His three wins all came in the opening eight races of the year. Since then Byron’s struggled to find consistency, with as many finishes outside of the top 20 (five) as he has in the top five.
“Second sucks, but (I’m) really proud of the effort,” Byron said. “We’ve been trying to put weeks together like this, and this is a really good step. Everyone did a great job on the team. Strategy was awesome. Car was awesome all day. I’m really proud of the team.”
Gibbs’ top five was more consequential, helping the sophomore make big strides toward his first Cup Series playoff appearance. He’d entered Michigan 19 points up on the cutline. Aided by issues for the three drivers behind him, the 2022 Xfinity Series champ left the Irish Hills with a 39-point cushion.
With two rounds left before the playoffs — including a wild card at Daytona International Speedway — Gibbs was happy to see his playoff advantage grow.
“It definitely is good to have a good points day,” Gibbs said. “Definitely wish we could have won and locked ourselves in, because winning usually takes care of about everything. But I’m thankful to be here and thankful to have a good day.”
Looking at the odds for Sunday’s 2024 Great American Getaway 400, with NASCAR expert picks and predictions.
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The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Pocono Raceway Sunday for the 2024 Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPA.com. Green flag is scheduled to drop shortly after 2:30 p.m. ET (USA Network). Let’s analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s lines around the 2024 Great American Getaway 400 odds, and make our expert NASCAR picks and predictions.
2024 Great American Getaway 400: What you need to know
Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron has never won at Pocono, but he leads all active drivers with a 9.9 Average-Finish Position (AFP) in 10 career starts, and he has never finished lower than 18th. Byron goes off 2nd on Sunday
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin has managed 7 wins, 15 top-5 finishes and 22 top-10 finishes with 827 laps led and 3 DNFs in 34 career Pocono starts with a 11.5 AFP.
Hamlin won last season’s race with an average speed of 119.363 mph. He’ll go off from the 4th spot in Sunday’s starting grid
JGR’s Ty Gibbs is on the pole for Sunday’s race. In 2 career Cup races, Gibbs has finished 5th and 16th at Pocono while leading 4 laps
RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski has a win, 11 top-5 finishes and 227 laps led in 26 career starts at the Tricky Triangle
Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch has 4 career checkered flags at Long Pond, while posting 11 top-5 runs among 18 top-10 finishes in his 36 career starts
JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. has 2 career wins at Pocono, while ending up with 7 top-5 finishes and 15 top-10 runs in 34 career Cup starts with a 14.1 AFP. MTJ goes off 3rd Sunday
Hendrick’s Alex Bowman, who won the Chicago Street Race last Sunday, posted a best speed of 168.723 mph in qualifying to start 6th Sunday
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain has never finished higher than 13th at Pocono in 8 career Cup starts, posting a dismal 27.6 AFP
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric has just 2 career Cup starts at Pocono, finishing 23rd and 31st with a poor Driver Rating of just 41.5
Ford has managed just 1 win at Pocono in the past 11 starts dating back to June 11, 2017. In that span, Toyota has won 8 times, with 2 wins for Chevrolet
MARTIN TRUEX JR. (+600) is worth a look in Sunday’s race. JGR has had tremendous luck over the years at Pocono Raceway, and MTJ is a good bet to finish in the top spot.
The New Jersey native is making his final Pocono start, at least as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver. He has made 34 Cup starts in his career at the Tricky Triangle, finishing with 2 wins, 7 top-5 runs and 15 top-10 results, while leading the pack for 257 laps with 2 DNFs and an 89.2 Driver Rating.
Great American Getaway 400 – Contender
RCR’s KYLE BUSCH (+4000) is too tempting to pass up at this price. A simple $10 wager nets a profit of $400.
While things certainly haven’t been going in Rowdy’s favor this season, he has a long and successful history at Pocono. In 36 career Cup starts, Busch has 4 wins, 11 top-5 finishes and 18 top-10 results with 585 laps led and an impressive 97.3 Driver Rating Average.
KYLE BUSCH — TOP-10 FINISH (+135) is worth a look at plus-money. Again, exactly half of his 36 career Cup starts at Pocono have resulted in a finish of 10th or better.
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Ty Gibbs will start from the pole in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway. Gibbs – the final driver to qualify – earned the top spot with a lap of 170.039mph (52.929s). It’s his the second career pole in the series. William Byron qualified …
Ty Gibbs will start from the pole in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway.
Gibbs – the final driver to qualify — earned the top spot with a lap of 170.039mph (52.929s). It’s his the second career pole in the series.
William Byron qualified second with a fastest lap of 169.661mph.
Martin Truex Jr. qualified third (169.221mph); Denny Hamlin, fourth (169.049mph) and Josh Berry, fifth (169.135mph). Hamlin is the defending Pocono race winner.
Alex Bowman qualified sixth (168.723mph); Tyler Reddick, seventh (168.083mph); Ryan Blaney, eighth (168.678mph) and Zane Smith, ninth (167.926mph). For Smith, it was a career-best qualifying effort and the first time he’s advanced to the final round.
Joey Logano completed the top 10 qualifiers. Logano’s lap was 168.092mph.
Cup Series point leader Kyle Larson qualified 12th.
Christopher Bell qualified 13th; Brad Keselowski, 14th and Carson Hocevar, 15th. Chris Buescher, who is on the playoff grid bubble, qualified 18th.
Ross Chastain qualified 19th and Austin Cindric qualified 20th. Kyle Busch qualified 24th.
NEXT: The Great American Getaway 400 at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday.
Check out the NASCAR Cup Series starting lineup for The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway this weekend!
Pocono Raceway is next for the NASCAR Cup Series, and Joe Gibbs Racing will lead the field to the green flag. [autotag]Ty Gibbs[/autotag] won the pole for The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono this weekend. William Byron will join Gibbs on the front row for Sunday afternoon’s event. It is Gibbs’ second pole position of the 2024 NASCAR season.
Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin will follow the two drivers on the second row. Most notably, Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe, and Bubba Wallace all qualified 20th or worse for Sunday’s event. This occurred as the track provided a tough challenge to competitors, with only three turns to maximize their starting position.
The full starting lineup is available below.
The Great American Getaway 400, NASCAR starting lineup:
Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman Ty Gibbs guided his No. 54 Monster Energy Camry XSE to a third-place finish in the NASCAR Cup Series race through the streets of downtown Chicago. The wild nature of the event still left him enthused days afterward. “Dude, …
Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman Ty Gibbs guided his No. 54 Monster Energy Camry XSE to a third-place finish in the NASCAR Cup Series race through the streets of downtown Chicago. The wild nature of the event still left him enthused days afterward.
“Dude, it was crazy,” said Gibbs from the Joe Gibbs Racing shop on Wednesday afternoon. “Chicago was really fun. I really liked that track. It was something else and I really loved it. My car was really fast. It was all clicking. It was all changing throughout the race. It was wet and then it was raining and got dried up. It was a lot. And the one groove was getting drier quicker. It was just all over the place and it was fun to keep up with the track and to experience the way that track changed. I really liked that and you don’t really get that all that much in asphalt racing.”
The wild and woolly nature the Chicago street course just made it all the more fun for Gibbs. John Harrelson/Motorsport Images
Performing double duty in Chicago, Gibbs also competed in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, where he placed third. The strong run has Gibbs brimming with excitement about the performance of both the Cup and Xfinity Series cars the Gibbs organization has been building for him.
“They’ve been great,” said Gibbs. “They’ve been working really hard on getting me set up correctly. It’s really important to have that and the team has really been after it and getting me right with it all.”
Gibbs emphasized that he delights in running in both the Cup and Xfinity events, as the seat time and collective experience has been significant in his growth trajectory as a racer.
“I really like it because it allows me to adapt really quickly and it’s more time on the racetrack,” explained the 21 year-old. “It was especially good in Chicago. I got to work my way up to it all. The track was so hard and difficult and so sketchy and treacherous. It’s fun to race both cars and it helps a lot. I love it — it’s so much fun and I learn so much. I mean, I like Cup. That’s my main focus. Xfinity is fun to get back in the car and mess around.”
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Currently ninth in Cup regular season points, as well as 14th in the playoff standings, Gibbs has been highly competitive all year long.
“I’m racing with some of the best drivers in the world, so I feel like I’m just some 21-year-old kid that somehow got into the Cup Series. So to be able to race these guys is cool and to be able to compete for wins has been really fun,” he said. “I’m very blessed, for sure. I try to keep it really humble. I just try to make the best of it and keep working hard.”
Gibbs has also worked on taking what race day gives him.
“I think it’s taking what you get each weekend and then not hyper focusing on a bad weekend. I want to just chill-out and have a good time and be thankful for what we get to do,” he said. “I mean, we are so blessed. We get to what we love for a living. What a career to have. And the team has been great. For sure there are a lot of factors involved in what we do. There is a lot of stuff that goes into it to where we are able to go out there and win. We’ve been really close and once we win, we won’t have to worry about any of that stuff. That’s the main thing. We’ve been really strong. We’ll keep working at it and see what it gives us. We just have to finish it off.
“I think experience is the most important thing with all of this,” continued Gibbs. “I think I’d be selfish to name one thing that I’m working on. It’s the experience that’s so important, especially in the Cup Series. Having time on the track and just experiencing the way it changes, it’s just so important to have that. It’s everything. Getting more experience, getting older and getting wiser with it is the biggest thing for me.”
Competing in an astonishingly competitive era of Cup racing where finding an edge over the other 35 cars on the grid is as tall an order as ever, Gibbs fully knows what he is up against.
“You just have to do everything the best you can,” he said. “Like getting the best sleep, eating the right way, working out, staying in shape, your mental side. That’s what it comes down to because it’s so tight. For me, I feel like I’m happy now. I want to keep working really hard and putting the hours in and the stuff will come to me eventually. That’s what I’ve gotten to learn and see in my career. I want to just keep having fun and to keep doing the right thing.”
Before beginning to pack up his bags for this weekend’s Pocono Raceway Cup race, Gibbs spoke about his recent experience of climbing into a McLaren M19A Formula 1 car of the early 1970s. Gibbs — a massive fan of all forms of motorsport — was thrilled with the opportunity.
“That was sick,” enthused Gibbs. “It was a pleasure to drive it. I don’t think it had been driven in 40 years. It felt good. It felt way better than I thought it was going to feel. I mean, it felt pretty racy, honestly. The car is 40 years old and feels that good? That’s pretty badass.”
Ty Gibbs is getting the chance to be behind the wheel of a vintage F1 car today! pic.twitter.com/iV8t1VSgsL
Looking at the odds for Sunday’s 2024 Grant Park 165, with NASCAR expert picks and predictions.
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The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the Chicago Street Course Sunday for the 2024 Grant Park 165. Green flag is scheduled to drop shortly after 4:30 p.m. ET (NBC). Let’s analyze FanDuel Sportsbook’s lines around the 2024 Grant Park 165 odds, and make our expert NASCAR picks and predictions.
2024 Grant Park 165: What you need to know
Kaulig Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen is behind the wheel of the No. 16 Chevrolet, looking to defend his title after winning the inaugural Chicago Street Race in 2023 while leading 9 laps. His win last season came in a Trackhouse Racing car
Rick Ware Racing’s Justin Haley was the runner-up in last season’s inaugural race, finishing 1.259 seconds behind van Gisbergen. Haley led the 2nd-most laps, turning 23 circuits in front of the pack
Chevrolet finished 1 through 5 in last season’s inaugural race. Team Penske’s Austin Cindric was the top Ford, finishing 6th, while Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs was the top Toyota in 9th
JGR’s Christopher Bell led 37 laps in last season’s inaugural race, most of any driver, but he ended up finishing 18th
Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman had a terrible time on the Chicago Street Course, finishing last in 37th place after an accident
Brothers Ty Dillon and Austin Dillon finished 35th and 36th, respectively, last July. Austin is in the field this season, but Ty is not
JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney ended up 32nd and 33rd, respectively, a year ago
CHRISTOPHER BELL (+750) is tied with Tyler Reddick for the 4th-shortest odds to win the race — behind last season’s winner in van Gisbergen (+195), Kyle Larson (+400) and Ty Gibbs (+600).
Bell led the most laps of any drivers in last season’s inaugural Chicago race, but he tumbled to an 18th-place finish. He comes in with a lot of confidence after winning recently in New Hampshire 2 weekends ago for his 3rd checkered flag of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. Bell also won the first 2 stages at Nashville Superspeedway last Sunday, before a wild overtime finish shuffled him out of the mix.
2024 Grant Park 165 – Contender
While Chevrolet dominated last year by finishing 1 through 5, look for Toyota to do well under dry conditions Sunday. JGR’s TY GIBBS (+600) acquitted himself well on the street setup last season, even leading 1 lap.
2024 Ally 400 – Prop Bets
DENNY HAMLIN — TOP-10 FINISH (-120) is a strong play on the street course.
Under adverse conditions last year, Hamlin ended up bringing it home 11th. It was a sloppy, wet mess last season, but conditions are expected to be dry, and fast this time around. It won’t take much for the driver of the No. 11 machine to work his way into the top 10, and at this price, he is a steal.
TOYOTA (+165) — WINNING MANUFACTURER is also a solid play. You’ll notice a theme above. Bell, Gibbs and Hamlin are all under the JGR umbrella, representing Toyota, and a strong day for the team is expected.
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Ty Gibbs was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. Gibbs paced the field at 159.287mph (30.059s). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was the only one who cracked the 159mph range. Ryan Blaney was second fastest …
Ty Gibbs was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.
Gibbs paced the field at 159.287mph (30.059s). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was the only one who cracked the 159mph range.
Ryan Blaney was second fastest (158.428mph), Bubba Wallace, third (158.25mph), Ross Chastain, fourth (158.187mph) and Todd Gilliland, fifth (157.921mph).
Chastain is the defending race winner of the Ally 400.
Kyle Larson was sixth fastest (157.9mph) followed by Joey Logano (157.858mph), Austin Cindric (157.77mph), Michael McDowell (157.744mph) and Tyler Reddick (157.666mph).
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Tennessee native Josh Berry was 13th fastest (157.552mph). Denny Hamlin was 15th (157.407mph).
Corey Heim was 17th fastest (157.329mph), making his third career start in the Cup Series in a third entry for 23XI Racing.
William Byron buried in 19th (157.04mph), while Martin Truex Jr. was 20th (157.004mph). Christopher Bell, the most recent winner, was 21st fastest (156.886mph).
Chase Elliott was just 22nd fastest (156.778mph), Kyle Busch, 29th (156.353mph) and Chase Briscoe, 37th (155.475mph).
There were no incidents in practice.
Blaney was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average. He paced ahead of Chastain, Wallace, Gibbs, and Allmendinger.
