After Showing Promise at the LA Coliseum, Ty Gibbs Is Ready to Step Up His Game

Ty Gibbs is just entering his second season as a NASCAR Cup Series driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. Last year was a bit of a learning curve for him as he got used to the Cup Series. Admittedly, he did get some experience with the Cup car in 2022, thanks to 23XI Racing. That probably helped his integration be much faster than usual because he took three races to get up to speed. In 2023, he only registered a best finish of 16th in the first four races. Then from the Atlanta Motor Speedway onwards, Gibbs went on a hot streak of four Top 10 finishes. And if we talk about 2024, the 21-year-old seems to be on a whole new level!

What happened to Ty Gibbs at the Los Angeles Coliseum?

During the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, Denny Hamlin drew first blood by winning the race. However, there was plenty of drama unfolding behind him, and Ty Gibbs was right in the thick of it. On Saturday, Ty led 84 laps in the race and had a titanic battle with Team Penske’s Joey Logano. Unfortunately during the battle for the lead, Logano pulled a questionable move on Gibbs to try and overtake but failed.

Later on in the race, Gibbs spun out and eventually recovered to finish in a lowly 18th. Meanwhile, Logano finished the race in fourth with his own battle scars. Afterward, the two drivers had a major confrontation outside Gibbs’ trailer which, fortunately, did not come to blows.

According to Gibbs, it was simply hard racing between the duo. He also admitted that it was difficult to warm up the tires, especially during the caution. His evidence was supported by the fact that many were sliding around.

Gibbs told Fox Sports, “He’s just mad that I ran him up. If you go back and look at the replay the 12 (Ryan Blaney) kind of chucks him out of the way too. It is just hard racing there at the end. This place is really hard to get your tires warm once the caution comes out – as you could see, everyone was sliding around. I just got in there deep and washed up into him. We just got all tangled up after that.”

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Despite the result, Ty Gibbs has proven that he is a strong contender

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He would have been gutted to only be rewarded with 18th for his efforts. However, he can take comfort in the fact that he was a contender for the race win. In other words, it has also proven that Ty Gibbs is ready to fight alongside his teammates for victory. Last year, he might have been cut some slack because he was a rookie, but now there are no excuses for failure.

Joe Gibbs Racing has a pretty strong line-up, with Denny Hamlin, who is a perennial title threat. Martin Truex Jr is the experienced head with one championship under his belt. Christopher Bell has also proven to be an underrated driver since he has often been overlooked as a title favorite. This is despite reaching the Championship 4 for two consecutive seasons, in 2022 and 2023. Finally, there is Ty Gibbs who is starting to come into his own, and his performance at the Coliseum could see him as a threat. Safe to say, all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers will enter the 2024 season, all guns blazing.

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