When a teammate is on the rise, the pressure builds up like nothing else. Ty Gibbs is watching his teammate Christopher Bell from a crowd of awestruck competitors. The No. 20 Toyota driver has won three back-to-back races of four events already in the 2025 Cup Series season. Meanwhile, the No. 54 driver is in the doldrums – Gibbs is 34th in the standings and still hunting for his first top-ten.
In this scenario, Joe Gibbs’s grandson is in a bit of a spot. After the team owner relaxed the rules about running extracurricular races, Christopher Bell jumped back into dirt racing and picked up medals. Similarly, Ty Gibbs is on a similar path now – in the hope that he can emulate Bell’s success.
A new journey for Ty Gibbs
At the beginning of 2025, Christopher Bell went on a dirt racing rampage. He picked up the Tulsa Shootout victory, the O’Reilly Race of Champions trophy at the Chili Bowl, and also World of Outlaws wins. Now that Bell is back to his roots, he is leaving a trailblazing campaign in NASCAR as well. After he clinched his third season win at Phoenix last weekend, he convinced Ty Gibbs. The young racer is seeking to embark on a similar route as Bell – carving out a dirt racing profile to amplify his NASCAR career.
Ty Gibbs will make his Sprint Car debut at Kubota High Limit Racing’s season opener this week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He will wheel the No. 84 Monster Energy Drink machine around the half-mile dirt oval. Chad Boat-owned CB Industries will be Gibbs’s official sponsor. Journalist Jeff Gluck updated the news on X, mentioning Christopher Bell’s first appearance in High Limit as well. “Christopher Bell (High Limit debut) and Ty Gibbs (first-ever sprint car race) will join Kyle Larson in racing Thursday night at the LVMS dirt track for the High Limit season opener.”
Christopher Bell (High Limit debut) and Ty Gibbs (first-ever sprint car race) will join Kyle Larson in racing Thursday night at the LVMS dirt track for the High Limit season opener.
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) March 11, 2025
This dirt racing interest began last year when Ty Gibbs debuted in a Midget at Ventura Raceway last fall in the annual Turkey Night Grand Prix. Then the 2022 Xfinity Series champion followed it up with a Chili Bowl Nationals entry where he won a G-main and finished sixth in one of the two F-mains. Earlier this month, Gibbs tested a winged 410 Sprint Car earlier this month at Carolina Speedway. Sprint Car veteran Lynton Jeffrey lauded Gibbs for his young talents. “Ty was very impressive. He really took the car like a professional and was very smooth. He wasn’t lacking speed and gave great feedback as we made the car better with each run.”
Ty Gibbs direly needs such validation at this time. His NASCAR stats have been on a downward spiral since last year, leaving veteran drivers worried.
Concerns about Gibbs’ falling pace
The tensions may have shot up after Christopher Bell‘s glorious streak. However, Ty Gibbs had enough reason to worry even in the latter part of the 2024 Cup Series season. In the final ten races of the playoffs, Joe Gibbs’s grandson scored just four finishes inside the top 20. Although they included a 5th-place finish, his reverse stats are depressing. Gibbs had five results of 30th or worse at the same time. For the 2025 season, Gibbs is yet to clinch a top-15 finish, recording DNF-laden finishes of 32nd and 34th in Atlanta and COTA. So given that the No. 54 team is struggling to harness good finishes, veterans Cup Series drivers are worried.
2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick commented: “Well, I’m gonna stay on the gas on this one because I’m concerned too…And I think right now as we saw that little slump, as we got towards the end of last year, that’s carried over into this year. And now they just need to right the ship. He’s got a whole new team this year. They’re almost starting over.” Clint Bowyer also signaled a warning: “He is in trouble. They need to right the ship…This isn’t just this wild card first start of this season. Goes back well into last season when this started. Something is going on with Ty Gibbs and this race car. They’ve got to get what he needs underneath of him so he can get out and do his job.”
Evidently, the pressure is intense for Ty Gibbs’s career at present. Hopefully, his sprint car pursuits would help provide some direction.
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