Ty Gibbs closer to 1st NASCAR Cup win with ‘right people’ around him

LAS VEGAS — The first NASCAR Cup Series win is seemingly right around the corner for Ty Gibbs now that, in his words, he has the right people around him.

“We’re working with the right people so that shows a lot and that’s why we’re running really great. They believe in me and are really loyal people and that’s important in racing and we’ve been running well,” Gibbs said.

After finishing fourth at Phoenix Raceway and having one of his closest calls with victory lane in the Cup Series, Gibbs spoke with bold confidence and offered what could be perceived as a jab at former competition director Chris Gabehart. In a lawsuit Joe Gibbs Racing filed against Gabehart, his frustrations with the young driver came to light.

For someone who compared himself to a certain deity, saying that deity also had haters, having a “hater” may be just the fuel he needs — and the stats agree.

Gibbs’ fourth-place finish was his second consecutive top-five finish — a feat he has only accomplished two other times in his career but never since 2024. In getting there, he put up a strong restart against one of the two best cars all day before falling a couple of laps later.

Although Gibbs didn’t win, his performance put him in Chase contention — in 15th in points, three points above the cutline. More broadly on the season, he is one of two drivers who has finished inside of the top-five in both of the non-drafting track races this season.

The other? Teammate Christopher Bell, who led the most laps at Phoenix.

Just between Gibbs and Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing is hot right now but all four cars ran well at Phoenix. Denny Hamlin has also finished inside the top-10 in both non-drafting track races and Chase Briscoe had a top-five car before finding issues in those races.

Now, they’re heading to Las Vegas, where Hamlin and Briscoe contended for the win in the fall and Bell has run well there before.

While Gibbs has an average finish of 24.1 at the 1.5-mile oval, that doesn’t tell the whole story.

In three of the last four Vegas Cup races, Gibbs has earned at least five stage points. The first instance was in spring of 2024 when he finished fifth after earning five points in the first stage.

Much like Phoenix, the stats didn’t look good on the surface for Gibbs at Las Vegas but he still ran a good race and had a good finish.

“We were really good with 8-10 races to go last year just didn’t really finish well,” Gibbs said, “but now I can really race and we’ve been fast all year.”

With the possibility of Chevrolet being behind with a new body and having won or dominated the last two Cup intermediate races, Toyota is bringing all the right ingredients to Las Vegas to cook up a slice of Heaven that could make Hell’s Kitchen chefs jealous.

And Ty Gibbs could be the guy to serve that to the field.

If Gibbs can win, he’ll snap a 127-race winless streak in the NASCAR Cup Series — one of the longest of any driver in the field. Ty Dillon leads all active drivers for most Cup races without a win (285).