Since entering the NASCAR Cup Series full time in 2023, Bristol Motor Speedway has been among Ty Gibbs’ best race tracks on the circuit. The No. 54 team needed to capitalize on that this weekend.
Dating back to the 2024 regular season finale at Darlington Raceway, Gibbs had assembled a pair of top 10 finishes across the last 19 races entering Bristol. One of those came last weekend at Darlington, placing ninth in the Goodyear 400.
The No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team got younger over the offseason, calling crew chief Tyler Allen up to the No. 54 team after spending one season as an Xfinity Series. Allen had immediate success last year, winning eight Xfinity races in 2024 with multiple drivers.
Results were hard to find in the opening two months of the Cup season. Through seven races, he had a best finish of 13th at Martinsville Speedway with one additional top 20 (16th in the Daytona 500). He entered Darlington last weekend 31st in the regular season championship standings.
But a strong run at Darlington built momentum heading into Bristol, where Gibbs has led north of 100 laps in two of his three most recent starts. On Saturday, he qualified sixth, his first top-10 starting position of the season.
With high tire wear during Saturday’s practice session, teams were expecting the unknown entering Sunday’s Food City 500. Within the opening 50 laps, it became apparent that the half-mile bullring was taking Goodyear rubber, unlike Saturday.
Track position prevailed – and Gibbs had loads of it. In the opening laps when the traction compound was dominant, he slipped to 15th. In a caution-free opening stage, he rebounded to ninth, scoring a pair of stage points.
Incremental gains were made throughout Stage 2, as Gibbs drove to seventh, guaranteeing four additional stage points. In the final stage, Gibbs continued marching forward, taking the checkered flag in third, his best finish since last August at Michigan International Speedway. It was his first top five since last September at Kansas Speedway.
“It’s definitely really nice,” Gibbs told Fox Sports of his third-place finish. “We had a really good clean day, really happy to have that. It’s been pretty chaotic start to our year. I think we’re back where we’re going to run.
“But really excited for the future and to get back racing after this off weekend. I think we’re really capable of winning a lot this year, so we’ll see what we can do and go out and have a fun time, have a blast.”
By totaling 40 points at Bristol, Gibbs jumped sixth positions in the regular season standings to 20th, 29 markers below the elimination line.
“I feel like we have great guys around me,” Gibbs added. “We’re capable of running really well, as we’ve seen.”
The series has its lone off week of the 2025 season next weekend, but returns in two weeks at Talladega Superspeedway. Gibbs has an average finish of 27.4 in five starts at NASCAR’s biggest oval.