JOE GIBBS: It was a family deal. The Owner’s Championship is a huge deal for us. Ty’s dad’s name, Coy, was over the door with my other son, J.D. Aric came to us 22 years ago when J.D. found him. It’s a family thing. It’s young. Young Life is telling people about Jesus. We’re going to let young people do the talking. Take care of him.
TY GIBBS: I guess that’s the excuse. I got to do the talking now.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, do you want to moderating? If you have a question for Ty…
- This I becoming a habit. Are you getting used to the owners winning press conferences?
TY GIBBS: First of all, it’s been a great last two weeks. We had the Taylor Gray win, now the Owner’s Championship. It’s super cool.
Also it’s the family business. I grew up in it. Came to the racetrack. It means a lot to me.
I want to be here one day and be able to help JGR out in any way that I can. It’s super cool to be here. I’m super happy for our last two weeks.
- The last time that JR Motorsports sent three cars to the Championship 4, obviously different situation, but you won the title that year. This year the lone JGR car in the Owner’s Championship wins the title. Why does that keep happening and that team, when outnumbered, they pull it out?
TY GIBBS: I think it’s the fight and determination. I think that was showed tonight. Aric kept fighting till the end and passed Connor with five to go roughly, and won it.
Just shows the fight and the grit of the team. We’re going up against great teams like JRM. So to see that is really cool. To have JGR win another Owner’s Championship is awesome. Very happy for them, Seth Chavka, everybody that’s part of the team. It’s a great day for us.
- You talked about how Aric didn’t stop fighting. He’s a guy that’s really smart, runs methodical. When he was hanging around, did you feel like he was going to have a little extra at the end to pounce?
TY GIBBS: Yeah, you know, Aric is kind of a consistent and methodical driver, I would say, especially in an Xfinity car. I knew he was doing whatever he had to do to kind of save his stuff or to launch at the end. The leaders were kind of racing hard, pushing their stuff to the end.
I think Aric made the right decision to kind of take care of his stuff and go pounce at the end. That’s what he did. Very happy for him. I think a lot credit to this Owner’s Championship is Aric as well. He’s been in this car for most of the races compared to everybody else. Very happy for the guys. It’s a great deal for us.
- You just said it’s a family affair. Nevertheless, using equipment from Toyota, how big is the involvement engineering-wise? For example, Toyota just launched the latest simulator program, helping drivers with sim racing. Is there a possibility that maybe in your team you see drivers with not real racing background, just sim racing background?
TY GIBBS: Yeah, I grew up in the sim racing background. My main focus was driving in go-karts at the time. I grew up racing sim. It was very important for me. I learned a lot off of it.
The other thing, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Toyota. Toyota has been a great partner for us for many years. To add multiple championships and owners titles with Toyota is so important. Toyota has so much resources at their hands with the simulator, everything that they bring. It’s so important for us as drivers and teams to have that.
I think that’s what shows our speed on the weeks. In the fight, we never give up. Toyota never gives up. We just keep going, so…
We’re very thankful to have them as a partner.
- Ty, in general, what day-to-day business operations have you seen that maybe could be translated into your full-time driving responsibilities?
TY GIBBS: Yeah, I love race cars. Being able to be around this my whole life is super cool. Kind of see how it all works. I don’t really know how it all works yet. Kind of getting a feel for it throughout my whole career and my whole life at JGR.
I love it. I respect this team so much. But I also love it and have a passion for it, as my whole family does. It’s a full family-run business. There’s so much behind the scenes that none of us see, how hard everybody works.
So it’s just super cool, super cool to pull up to the shop early in the morning, when I think I’m getting there early, to see my mom and my grandfather there hours before everybody else.
Everybody is grinding very hard there. I love it. It’s given me a lot of motivation but also kind of stood my ground and my work ethic. But it’s super cool. I’m very, very thankful to be a part of it. I’ve been around it my whole life.
- You did one race in this car in Mexico City. How does it feel to be a part of the owner but part of the driver, too?
TY GIBBS: Yeah, I had my one round in Mexico this year. It was a good time. We were really fast.
Super cool. I’m a little part in this. I’m very thankful for everybody, very happy and proud for everybody at JGR, all the men and women back there. Seth Chavka, all the engineers. I know Seth has been working so hard. I’m so happy for Seth. I’m very proud of him. To see him kind of grow up, he was my lead engineer in 2023, my rookie year in my the Cup Series. Full-time gig for the last year. To see him win an Owner’s Championship is awesome. I think the world of Seth, how hard he works, how he carries the team and everything.
It’s super cool. JGR is one family. To kind of see how pumped everybody is is awesome. Super cool. Super happy for everybody. It’s a good day.
- Winning the Xfinity Series championship as a driver, now as an owner, I don’t know if anyone else can say that. What does that mean to you?
TY GIBBS: Dale Jr. can say it, I’m pretty sure (smiling).
Yeah, it’s super cool. For us to have a great day here is awesome. To see the hard work and determination by Aric to kind of get past the 88 at the end is really cool. Very good move by him.
Yeah, it’s a great day for JGR and for everybody there. It shows how hard everybody works. It’s super cool. Very thankful for our partners, Young Life, Toyota, everything in this whole deal.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Ty, on this championship.
TY GIBBS: Thank you. Appreciate it.
THE MODERATOR: We’re now joined by the driver of the No. 19 and the 2025 Owner Champion, that’s Aric Almirola.
We’ll take questions.
- I remember in Vegas you said this would be the biggest accomplishment of your career. You done it. How does it feel?
ARIC ALMIROLA: It feels amazing. I’m a little bit emotionally drained at the moment. Just such an awesome moment for me to be able to do that for Coach and Joe Gibbs Racing.
Tonight is not about Aric Almirola. I just happened to be the guy driving the racing car.
This will go down in history as Joe Gibbs Racing 2025 Xfinity Owner’s Championship, not Aric Almirola. I am so grateful to be a part of that and to deliver that to Joe Gibbs Racing. Just the way this year went, right, the way it turned out, having Young Life on the car. Obviously that ministry meaning a lot to the Gibbs family, to J.D. Gibbs, to have J.D.’s name on the car. We had Coy’s name on the car tonight. It was just special.
Yeah, I’m so grateful. This is an amazing opportunity for me to be able to say thank you to Coach and the Gibbs family for what they’ve done for me and my life. At 19 years old, I was debating on whether or not I was going to continue to keep racing. I was spending a lot of my family’s money. The alternative was to get my engineering degree. If I didn’t get my engineering degree, the alternative was to work at my grandfather’s body shop, working 60 hours a week, eating Bondo dust, right?
J.D. gave me an opportunity as a 19-year-old kid to become a professional race car driver, to get a paycheck to drive a race car.
I’m just so grateful that I got that opportunity and that 22 years later I was able to win a championship for Joe Gibbs Racing. Not for me, but for Joe Gibbs Racing.
It’s just really special.
- Did you and Coach get to have a talk after the race?
ARIC ALMIROLA: We did. It’s really cool. He called me two years ago when I was walking away from Cup racing. He said, Hey, I think I got something you might be interested in. Be fun for both of us. I’d like for you to come back to Joe Gibbs Racing and finish your career here. It would mean a lot to me and our family.
Yeah, so what better way to say thank you than to deliver, right? Last year I left here sad. I came up one spot short to Allgaier to do that. Had no idea when I left here that this year was even on the radar. This all came together three weeks before Daytona.
I wasn’t even still supposed to race at the end of the season, right? I won Bristol. It was like, Oh, boy, we might have a shot at this. Leading into Vegas, we sat down and talked. It was like, Hey, we need to seriously consider going to race for the Owner’s Championship. I think we can do it. We went to Vegas. We won. Obviously put us in position to come here and have a chance to race for it again.
Justin Bonsignore was so gracious to give up Martinsville and the race here so that I could drive the 19 car. Just really grateful to Justin for doing that.
To answer your question, yeah, Coach and I shared a moment. I shared a moment with Melissa, J.D.’s wife, and Miller is here, Jason is here, J.D.’s boys. So yeah, it was just really special. Ty came to Victory Lane. I talked to Heather Gibbs on the phone, on Coach’s phone.
Yeah, it’s special. It means a lot to me to be able to do that for the Gibbs family and for Joe Gibbs Racing. Coach talks all the time about winning with people. You win with people. So tonight was just that, right? It was about honoring the people at Joe Gibbs Racing that made this happen. I was lucky enough to be a part of it.
- You said this is your career highlight. Could this be a mic drop sort of moment for you?
ARIC ALMIROLA: Potentially, yeah (smiling). I left here last year not knowing what to expect. I’m leaving here again not knowing what to expect.
I’ve learned over the last few years, probably the last four years — don’t forget I announced I was going to retire and didn’t retire. Mark Martin did it, too. Jimmie Johnson, too, so…
I don’t know. I’ve learned to just let God lead and I’ll follow. I tried for so much of my life and of my career to white knuckle it, steer the ship. It’s been really fun for me the last couple years to just let God steer the ship. I’m just along for the ride.
- You drove for great teams. You have firsthand insight how a successful team has to be run. You mentioned the word ‘retirement’. In the future, is it an option to become a team owner by yourself?
ARIC ALMIROLA: No, I need a couple more commas in my bank account.
No, that is out. I don’t even want to own a go-kart team. Ask Alex. I’ll buy him all the bats and cleats he wants.
Yeah, I have no desire to be a team owner. The saying is if you want to make a small fortune in racing, start with a big one.
You find the sponsor, we’ll do it. You put up half (smiling).
- Talking about family and emphasizing that with Joe Gibbs, how does it feel to have your kids with you onstage?
ARIC ALMIROLA: It’s amazing. Never gets old, celebrating with my family.
Every dad wants their kids to look up to them like a superhero, right? It’s pretty easy when they’re three, four, five. It gets really hard when they’re this age. They’re a lot smarter, know everything. They have their own friend group. Dad becomes not very cool.
In moments like these, dad is still cool, right? I love it. It is awesome to be able to share these moments with my family ’cause this is what it’s all about for me.
I stepped away from full-time racing because I was fearful that I was making way, way too many sacrifices with my family to focus on chasing my dreams and my career. I wanted my kids to know that they’re more important to me than trophies or my career or chasing more money or any of those things. That’s why I decided to walk away.
To have the opportunity to do both is incredible.
- When you stopped racing Cup, was there a thought this is a chance for me to revive the way someone may look at me, because the success you’ve had in the Xfinity Series, winning races, people maybe look at you as a better race car driver than what you looked like when you retired from Cup?
ARIC ALMIROLA: Yeah, God knew exactly what He was doing. If He would have allowed me to have this kind of success early on in my career, I probably would have been a lot different person. I would have had a lot more pride and ego, probably had a lot bigger head, thought way more highly of myself.
God kept me very humble throughout my entire career. I was a journeyman racer. I won here and there, performed at a high level here and there, but not at the level that I wanted to, right? I wanted to win multiple races a year, win championships. I wanted to do all those things.
In life, you don’t always get what you want. Sometimes unanswered prayers are the best prayers. For me, I’m able to look back on my life and my career now and be grateful that I’m right where God wants me.
Yeah, I wanted to be in the best equipment. I wanted to win races. I believed in my heart that I could. I just never had the right opportunity, was never surrounded with just the right people and the right place in the right time. It’s so much about timing. That didn’t happen for me.
I am totally at peace with that. I’ve been blessed beyond my wildest imagination. I’ve achieved way more than I ever thought I would achieve. When I was racing late models and go-karts in Florida, all over the Southeast, I never thought I’d be a NASCAR driver. I had hopes but never thought I would actually become that.
There’s thousands of kids that race all over the country that want to be a professional race car driver. Only 40 are going to roll off tomorrow and be a NASCAR Cup driver. Only 40. The odds are not really in your favor to be a NASCAR Cup driver, let alone the best, right?
There’s only so many Jimmie Johnsons and Jeff Gordons. There’s only so many Dale Earnhardts and Kyle Larsons, Richard Pettys. I was not one of those. I am totally fine with that. I’m Aric Almirola, and I’m exactly who God wants me to be.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations to you and the entire 19 team.
ARIC ALMIROLA: Thank you guys. It’s been awesome.
— NASCAR —