Joe Gibbs’ Grandson Unravels His Frustration in Bristol After Fighting for a 1–2 Finish

It was a top-10 sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing as Denny Hamlin claimed back-to-back BMS Trophies at the Food City 500, with teammate Martin Truex Jr bump-drafting his #19 on its way to a runners-up spot, in a race that saw only 5 cars finish on the lead lap in 30 years. The #11 started at third from green, securing an impressive Toyota Racing Development victory, but it was his young teammate Ty Gibbs who was stealing the show in the first two stages.

The #54’s sophomore-year “tire management” woes at the repaved Bristol circuit were visibly clear after starting at P19 and then going on to lead 137 laps, as he looked to be in strong contention for his first Cup Series victory. Hamlin and MTJ’s veteran prowess prevailed, however, as the fourth JGR driver, Christopher Bell also finished behind Ty Gibbs’ P9, rounding off another sweep at the other end of the top 10 spectrum for his grandfather’s gloried organization. The 21-year-old youngster was disappointed, however, as he talked about his views towards the “dynamic of the race” to Bob Pockrass of FOX.

Ty Gibbs Joins Teammates on “Tire Management” Woes

With Coach Joe Gibbs silently observing from the background in the video, the brightest rising star of the JGR stable talked about his “frustrations” after fading out in the final stages. He said, “We’re just two laps late coming in and then we have that target on me, and I’m able to lose all. I think I was like 4 laps down at one point, so I don’t know. Just frustrating but yeah, worked for it here.” A closer look at their recent record shows that they have been “working for it” since the beginning of the season. This P9 finish marks the #54 driver’s fourth top-10 in a season that has seen him registered to back-to-back top-5s in just five races run.

The 2022 Xfinity Champion then detailed his own “resin” gambles to follow up on the “growing discussions” regarding Goodyears new short track tires, and the unnatural wear, on display for the first time at Bristol.

He told Pockrass, “We only had that one extra set, and once you blow a tire because you’re running it usually, there’s a caution around a certain time, right? So you’re kinda running as hard as you can until the end, and then it just bites you, because then you blow a tire, then you go that lap down. “

Gibbs continued, “So, you can’t really control that, but you’re waiting on that caution, you’re banking on that caution. When that doesn’t count, you’re screwed… it’s kinda what happened to us.” The last caution never came, as after the 9th yellow, the race saw the longest green-flag run of the day, with Denny Hamlin securing his 4th career Bristol victory.

Nevertheless, the #54 car was, only the third-last out of all JGR representatives at “The Last Great Colosseum”.

The Worst JGR Toyota in Bristol

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Christopher Bell, last-to-last Sunday’s Phoenix winner in the #20 Toyota, had the worst performance among JGR cars during the 500-lap short-track race, as tire troubles plagued the field all night. Nevertheless, neither the #45 nor the #20 Camry XSE was the third-fastest Toyota this week, as Legacy Motor Club’s, John Hunter Nemechek took his #42 to an impressive P6 finish, MTJ acknowledged this shift in fortunes for the TRD contingent on pitlane, as he had earlier iterated, “the Toyotas were really working well for us today.”

Early-season dominators, Hendrick Motorsports, and American-giants Chevrolet did not do all that bad at Bristol, either, as Alex Bowman and Vegas-victor Kyle Larson gave HMS a clean 4 and 5 spot pickup respectively, behind RFK owner/driver Brad Keselowski who ended his race at P3.

JGR’s race-winner Denny Hamlin, displaying expert composure had his own observations for his young teammate after the race: “So many times during that race, if I led and I had Ty Gibbs behind me, he was beating my rear bumper off. I’m just like, ‘Go. If you wanna go, go right ahead.’ And he’d blow by me by the outside, and he’d go. And then I’d watch him, and then I’m like, it’s just a matter of time…”

Will Ty, Denny, MTJ, or Bell make it a three-for-three for Coach Gibbs? We are waiting for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA on March 24th to find out for sure.

Read More: Denny Hamlin Confesses Feeding Off Impatient JGR Teammate to ‘Control the Race’ in Bristol