Ty Gibbs Back on Track: Finishes 3rd at Bristol, Back-to-Back Top 10s

Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Ty Gibbs, the 22-year-old grandson of the legendary Coach Joe Gibbs, and his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team have turned their season around over the last three races, following a frustrating start to the 2025 campaign. The latest good run came in the form of a season-best finish of third in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

RESULTS: Food City 500 at Bristol

"It's definitely really nice. 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," Gibbs stated in his FS1 post-race interview after his podium finish.

Following Saturday's practice session, where tires were being worn down to the cords after just 40 lap runs, Gibbs, and essentially everybody else expected Sunday's race at Bristol to be a carbon copy of the Spring race a year ago, where the concrete surface chewed up tires at a feverish pace.

Gibbs, who led 137 laps in last Spring's Food City 500, before securing a ninth-place finish, likely wasn't upset with the prospect of a repeat of last year's event.

However, when the cars were rolled to the grid on Sunday afternoon, the heavy cloud cover, which had draped the Bristol Motor Speedway all weekend, had burned off. This led to higher than expected temperatures in the teack surface, which in turn allowed the track to take rubber from the Goodyear tires, and allowed the tire wear to not impact the outcome of the race.

Once it turned out that tires weren't going to be a factor, Gibbs and his crew chief Tyler Allen focused on adapting to the track conditions the rest of the day.

"It seemed like it was a half to three-quarters Spring race, but the tire wear wasn't bad, which was very surprising," Gibbs noted. "But I feel like the track was speed, time-wise very fast, but it felt like very less grip. I don't know, but I don't really care. I think we just did a good job of adapting to how it was and kept pressing forward."

They adapted, they pressed forward, and in the end, Gibbs and the No. 54 team got a much-needed top-five finish. The driver, who was on everyone's short list of potential next first-time NASCAR Cup Series winners for the majority of last season, was happy to get a chance to spend some laps near the front.

And after the solid run, Gibbs is quickly rebuilding his confidence.

"I think it's definitely a good day for us. I think we're definitely a capable team of running in the top five every weekend," Gibbs said. "And just good to get us some reps and to be in this position. Very happy to have a good run, and I definitely think we're going to be real solid."

Saturday's Qualifying Session Set Tone for Gibbs at Bristol

While Gibbs did have a clean, and solid race at Bristol on Sunday, the tone of the weekend was set in Saturday's qualifying session, where the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota registered a sixth-place starting position, his first starting spot inside the top 10 through the season's opening nine races.

And when you zoom out on his current three-race top-15 streak, which has vaulted Gibbs from 34th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings after Homestead-Miami Speedway to 20th after this past weekend's race at Bristol, you notice that qualifying performance has likely played a major role in the turnaround for the young racer.

Gibbs' three best qualifying runs of the season have all come over the last three weeks as he qualified 13th at Martinsville, ninth at Darlington, and sixth this past weekend at Bristol.

In a sport, where the competition is getting closer and closer, and passes are increasingly harder to pull off seemingly with each rule change, track position has become the biggest dividend payout in the NASCAR Cup Series.

"I'll shoot you guys straight. We all have the same car. Just what it is," Gibbs said in a media scrum after the Food City 500. "It's going to be hard to pass because everybody has the same exact stuff and [can only make] very small adjustments. I think that's what they wanted, and now, that's kind of what we've got."

Clean-air has become the undefeated king in the NASCAR Cup Series, and it's a big part of why over the last few weeks, we've seen some truly next-world dominant performances from drivers.

Denny Hamlin led more laps (274) in a winning effort than he had since the 2009 season when he took the victory at Martinsville Speedway three weeks ago.

William Byron led the opening 243 laps from the pole position at Darlington two weeks ago, and only lost due to late-race pit strategy.

This past weekend, Kyle Larson led 82.2% of the 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway, and aside from Alex Bowman leading the opening 39 laps from the pole, the remainder of the laps Larson failed to lead came due to a green flag pit sequence late in the race.

As far as how NASCAR can fix the utter domination that has been displayed over the last three races, Gibbs feels like an increase in horsepower could be the cure-all.

"I think horsepower will probably change a little bit of that," Gibbs explained. "You can keep adjusting the tire, and slowing it down, but then we all slow down together. And I think we all see that too. And I don't really know. It's not my job, because I don't work for NASCAR. I just drive in NASCAR, and just try to maximize what we can do."

Will NASCAR make a change moving forward? That remains to be seen, but Gibbs heads into the lone off-weekend of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season on a high-note, and he'll look to carry his newfound momentum into the Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in a couple of weeks.