Ever thought about what happens when a young driver falters despite being expected to bear the weight of a renowned name? For instance, Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, eyeing the championship title. However, he had trouble with crew chief changes and team cohesion, which resulted in less-than-expected outcomes. And 2025 puts Ty Gibbs in a similar situation. After a strong debut season, a promising young driver in a top-tier vehicle was anticipated to excel. But considering the Cup series standings, the Toyota No. 54 has not set his foot right and firm!
Gibbs’ difficulties are not unique to him. Even former Cup champion and owner-driver Brad Keselowski is having one of his poorest starts to the season. After making significant progress in 2024, RFK Racing has appeared to be struggling in 2025. And, let’s just say the NASCAR world is concerned.
The season is slipping away from Ty and Brad
Kevin Harvick expressed his worries in an uncluttered manner on his podcast. He mentioned more serious problems than a crew chief change when Kaitlyn Vincie questioned him about the difficulties of both drivers, especially Gibbs, who hasn’t been able to duplicate his rookie season numbers. Christopher Bell has won several games, and Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 squad has become reliable, but Gibbs and Keselowski are still in the muck, which begs the question of where their teams are headed.
Tyler Gibbs and Brad Keselowski are in trouble. At least, that’s the growing concern among NASCAR insiders, and Kevin Harvick has now gone as far as ringing the alarm bell for both drivers. Speaking on Happy Hour, Harvick bluntly addressed the situation: “They’re in a tough spot. At some point, you have to show progress, or people start asking hard questions,” Kevin Harvick said on The Happy Hour Podcast. Once predicted to be Toyota’s next big star, Gibbs has had difficulty making an impression in 2025. Keselowski, a driver and co-owner of RFK Racing, is going through one of the most difficult periods of his career at the moment. The team’s abrupt decline following its 2024 comeback has sparked questions about RFK’s ability to remain competitive.
“Concerned for the 54 and concerned for the 6 car. They have not qualified well. They’ve raced okay a few times. I think that’s probably as much as Brad’s experience. There are some good scenarios and bad scenarios that we’ll just have to see,” Harvick added. Anyone who anticipated that Tyler Gibbs would make an impression in his sophomore year has been tragically proven wrong. Harvick’s evaluation went beyond a cursory analysis. He emphasized how Keselowski’s No. 6 camp has been plagued with disappointing qualifying results while the No. 54 crew is going through major internal changes. The question now is whether these clubs can use the Easter break, which offers a rare midseason reset, to turn things around or if their problems will just worsen. But, why is Ty Gibbs actually struggling?
Turns out, JGR replaced his crew chief Chris Gayle with Tyler Allen this summer, which was a significant shift, but the outcome hasn’t improved as of yet. The management of Joe Gibbs Racing has continued to be helpful, but internal discontent is rising. NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck didn’t hold back, calling Gibbs’ performances in 2025 a “historic run of c—–ness” on The Teardown podcast.
Ty Gibbs had a rough start to the season after a brake rotor failure at the NASCAR Cup Series race in Phoenix on March 9, 2025, which resulted in a caution. “Ty Gibbs is on like a historic run of crappiness right now. Just like unbelievably. His results have been just horrible. Absolutely horrible. And today apparently they had a brake rotor that went bad and caused that last caution there,” Jeff Gluck shared.
Like Christopher Bell, Gibbs is turning to sprint car racing as a way to boost his performance as the pressure mounts. Bell’s dirt racing experience has helped him dominate in the Cup races, as Jeff Gluck noted, and Grandpa Gibbs hopes for the same outcome for his grandson. This change is reminiscent of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s early Cup setbacks.
Like Gibbs, Earnhardt Jr. had to live up to high expectations because of his last name. Before he found stability at Hendrick Motorsports, his inconsistent performance at Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) tormented him. It’s possible that Gibbs is now at a turning point in his career and is looking for a breakthrough before JGR begins to doubt his long-term course. It’s not long ago that Ty’s mother expressed her concerns.
Gluck acknowledged that the title driver is having a terrible run and claimed that Brad Keselowski, who is also experiencing a similar run of bad luck, is in a worse position than he is. “It’s pretty crazy that nothing is going right for them,” he continued. “Just absolutely miserable. He is 34th in points. As bad as things have been for Brad Keselowski, things have been worse for Ty Gibbs. I mean, it’s just, he is the third-to-lowest full-time driver right now. Nothing can go right for that team. It’s pretty crazy,” he added.
While Gibbs’ problems are a result of his inexperience, Brad Keselowski’s problems are equally, if not more, alarming. It was anticipated that RFK Racing would expand on its 2024 success, but Keselowski has been caught up in mid-pack conflicts. He has been fighting uphill every weekend due to his qualifying difficulties.
Bad Brad was in contention late at Michigan, for instance, but he fell like a rock on the last restart, stacking the field behind him. Harvick thinks something more serious is amiss, but Keselowski maintains the team and is still finding speed. Although the No. 6 car has displayed fleeting competitiveness, RFK Racing’s lack of qualifying speed is a major disadvantage. Keselowski hasn’t appeared to be a real contender this season, despite his teammate Chris Buescher having some impressive runs.
NASCAR’s larger development and manufacturer struggles
Ty Gibbs, who is only 22 years old, was anticipated to be Joe Gibbs Racing’s next generational prodigy, similar to what Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson have been for Hendrick Motorsports. His second full season in the Cup Series, however, has been a huge letdown. He is well down the rankings, even below teams with less funding, and his best 2025 finish was still 16th at the Daytona 500.
Ahead of the Las Vegas race, JGR crew chief Tyler Allen said, “He’s a fierce competitor and wants to win just like me. But you know, the Cup Series is hard, and you’ve got to focus on all the details. So I think if you asked both of us, we feel like things are going to turn around. No negativity. Disappointed in the results, but we’re both ready to go have some good results.”
Young drivers like Carson Hocevar (Spire Motorsports), on the other hand, have shown notable progress. Even while they might not be competing for victories every week, their consistent development draws attention to Gibbs’ depleting inertia. Has Gibbs not adjusted well to the Cup Series, or is it a case of JGR not realizing his full potential?
Examples of both results can be found throughout history. Strong development programs allowed Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson to thrive, while JGR’s previous young drivers, like Daniel Suárez and Erik Jones, found it difficult to establish a lasting career.
The downfall of Brad Keselowski is even more challenging. The 2012 Cup Series winner was once one of NASCAR’s most aggressive and self-assured drivers, but these days, he hardly makes an impression on race weekends. “The most important thing to me outside of being talented to doing it was having a set of values and behaviors that drove me to do it at the highest level possible,” Brad Keselowski said. He has contributed to the team’s improvement since becoming a co-owner at RFK Racing, but in 2025, the team has significantly regressed as well.
Keselowski’s predicament is uncannily similar to that of former champions who lost their edge as they approached retirement. In his career-ending years, Matt Kenseth had trouble with Roush Fenway Racing. Jimmie Johnson’s historic run came to an end after he went years without winning for Hendrick Motorsports. Even after winning a championship in 2011, Tony Stewart was no longer relevant when he retired. The baseline is, drivers lose their spark eventually as age takes over.
In addition to Keselowski’s difficulties, Ford has been surpassed overall in 2025 in the constructors’ cup standings. Stewart-Haas Racing, Team Penske, and RFK Racing have all fallen behind Toyota and Chevrolet in terms of speed. Pretty sad for a manufacturer who has previously been the torchbearer in NASCAR’s development cycle. In the late 2000s, Toyota was unable to keep up with HMS and Roush’s speed due to its early struggles. And now, only Joey Logano was regularly contending for victories during Ford’s difficult period in the middle of the 2010s.
2025 has been uncertain for both Brad Keselowski and Ty Gibbs. Do their difficulties indicate more serious problems within their teams and manufacturers, or are they merely personal? The pressure increases with every race that goes by, with Keselowski trying to find a comeback before the clock runs out and Gibbs trying to show he’s not JGR’s next failed experiment.
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