It is safe to say that Ty Gibbs has not made too many friends on the race track. Last year, he burst onto the scene with a number of Xfinity Series wins in his one-off appearances. Since then, he was touted as a rising star and people could not wait to see how his career panned out. Now, he has found himself as a substitute for an injured Kurt Busch, and some of that sheen has been scrubbed off.
At Texas last weekend, he had an on-track altercation with Ty Dillon and got punished for it. In light of this, 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski reflected on Gibbs’ actions. According to him, this is largely down to the 23XI Racing driver’s inexperience. Since he is so young and got fast-tracked to the Cup Series, he hasn’t had time to hone his craft.
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What did Brad Keselowski say about Ty Gibbs?
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The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver said, “Ultimately, what I see here is a teenage kid who is working his way through it. He’s making mistakes on the biggest stage in our sport, and it’s a really difficult situation. I can’t be mad at (Ty Gibbs). I did a lot dumber things when I was a teenager, but I wasn’t on this stage. So, this goes to a bigger problem of why we don’t really need teenagers at this level because this is not the place to learn those lessons.”
In a way, he is right, because Gibbs is only 19 and has been racing in NASCAR since 2019. Admittedly, this should have been his full-time Xfinity career, where he would garner sufficient experience. Then, when he was ready to graduate to the Cup Series, a seat would be waiting for him.
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However, that plan was thrown away when Kurt Busch had his accident at Pocono and has been out of action ever since. Now, one has to wonder whether the promotion came far too early for Ty Gibbs. Brad Keselowski certainly thinks so, and his recent actions at the Texas Motor Speedway are proof of it.
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