The first person to reach a victorious Ty Gibbs on the frontstretch at the Daytona Road Course wasn’t his crew chief, nor anyone from the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 team, but rather a journeyman racer who had just finished 17th.
Josh Williams had something to say.
He wrapped-up an emotional Gibbs, who had tears streaming down his eyes, in a definition bear hug for a good 30 seconds — telling the 18-year-old what many who were watching had surely thought to themselves.
“I just told him that he deserved it and that he proved the haters wrong,” Williams said.
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Ty is the grandson of Coach Joe Gibbs, son of Coy, nephew of J.D. and the subject of immense pressure associated with that incredible lineage.
That’s because the family has excelled in every arena they’ve entered. Coach earned three Vince Lombardi trophies for the Washington Redskins. His NASCAR program has accumulated five Cup Series championships and counting.
Ty has acquired the competitive spirit of his granddad, father and uncle, but far too much weight is often placed on what else he’s inherited.
It’s true: The youngest Gibbs has been provided every opportunity to pursue his dreams, which isn’t that different than a majority of the NASCAR garage. This isn’t exactly a sport that frequently generates blue-collar rags to riches success stories.
The vitriol is reserved for legacy drivers not named Earnhardt or Elliott.
When Chase Elliott gave Kyle Busch the middle finger at Darlington last summer, it was an act of passion. When Gibbs lamented restrictor plate racing after the ARCA race at Daytona in February — saying he looked forward to returning to a real track — that was interpreted as entitlement.
In a rare tweet, Gibbs was chided by Dale Jarrett, who took Joe Gibbs Racing to its first Cup Series victory in the 1993 Daytona 500.
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Fans piled on.
He’s only here because of his granddad.
He’ll never drive in subpar equipment.
Damn brats think the world owes them something.
There had to be a sense of validation seven days later when he outdueled defending champion Austin Cindric at the Daytona Road Course just hours after strapping in the car for the first time without the benefit of a single practice session.
Williams certainly felt it when he ran across the ball field to congratulate the youngster.
“You know all the stuff that’s out there on social media,” Williams said. “We all see it, and I get in the middle of it, because I don’t know how to hold back on Twitter at all.
“I wanted to stick up for the kid because I don’t care who you are or where you come from, what he did was damn impressive. Yes, there are kids out there who are more fortunate than others. He has a great opportunity and he goes out there and makes the most of it.
“There have been a lot of kids who have just as much sponsorship money and haven’t gotten the results he got in one start, against one of the best young drivers out there. He deserves it.”
For his part, Ty says he isn’t overly concerned with the critics, but it was also said while wiping a tear from his eyes.
Much of that, of course, was likely a sense of accomplishment and gratitude as well.
“I’m just chasing my dreams because I love racing,” Ty said. “That’s one thing I learned at an early age: Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life. I’ve had a hell of a ride and you just have to block the haters out. It doesn’t really bother me at this point. I never really had an issue with it.
“That’s part of life and the sort of thing you’re going to have to go through to be a champion someday.”
Gibbs certainly looks the part of a champion. He responded to his debut victory at Daytona with a second-place finish a week later at Phoenix Raceway. He won the ARCA event the previous day, his ninth win in 29 starts at that level.
Success didn’t always come this easy.
Matt Weaver
His formative years as a stock car driver came while racing Late Model Stocks across the Carolinas and Virginias, where he drove for blue-collar racer Greg Marlow out of a modest garage in Statesville, North Carolina. Those who claim he will never drive subpar equipment didn’t follow Gibbs the two years he actually did.
That’s not to say Gibbs was in bad equipment, per se, but it certainly wasn’t the same caliber of cars prepared by JR Motorsports, Nelson Motorsports or Lee Pulliam Performance at that level.
That was the point: Gibbs was there for an education.
Marlowe had first met Coy Gibbs when they raced against each other at Hickory Motor Speedway in the ‘90s. With Marlowe, the primary goal wasn’t immediate success, but rather growth. Coy Gibbs didn’t set out to spoil his son with the easiest pathway to victory lane, but rather, to make him worthy of it.
“I was really hard on him, as hard as you possibly could be,” Coy said. “My approach is you’re going to have to face the pressure sooner or later, so I might as well apply it as hard as I possibly can.”
Coy wanted his son to experience a challenge, to learn how to provide valuable feedback, and maybe even challenge a crew chief that he knew was capable of managing it.
“I think if you want to compete in any sport, any athletics, you’ve got to be disciplined,” Coy said. “I think instilling discipline a lot of times is hard for the kids. … You have to get hardened.
“That’s what I wanted him to have. I wanted him to have his voice and understand that you don’t have to just listen to the crew chief or listen to someone about the car. If you don’t like it, you need to voice your opinion and change it.
“I see so many kids growing up that don’t do that, then kind of fall in a rut of just listening to whoever the crew chief is, whoever is tuning the car. I think that’s a huge mistake.”
Ty and Marlowe won twice together in weekly competition at Hickory but averaged just an eighth-place finish in 22 CARS Tour starts — the highest level of competition in Late Model Stock racing.
“He had the natural ability to go fast,” Marlowe said. “We just worked on tire management. How to pass. He did a phenomenal job. It was always a matter of how hard he wanted to work for it.
“I thought, for a kid that was growing up and trying to drive race cars, that he worked really hard. That he did everything we asked of him. I’m not surprised to see what he’s done since then in the slightest.”
CARS Tour
It was important to race behind the likes of Lee Pulliam, Josh Berry, Bobby McCarty and Deac McCaskill before racing with them. That was one of the messages Marlowe imparted onto Gibbs.
“Greg Marlowe really built my foundation as a driver,” Gibbs said. “He taught me a lot. He told me all the time, ‘If you want this so bad, you have to work for it.’ That’s the main thing I took away as a driver, but as a kid, I just took away a lot of life lessons too.”
He wasn’t truly in championship caliber equipment until he made his ARCA debut in 2019 in a full-fledged Joe Gibbs Racing effort. The years spent with Marlowe paid off as he won twice in 11 starts that summer. He won six more times in 2020.
At the Daytona Road Course Xfinity Series race, Cindric did used every trick in the champion’s book to force Gibbs into a rookie mistake, but Gibbs was no ordinary rookie.
“I put him in some really tough spots trying to hang onto the lead… so he handled everything really well and was in a position on those restarts and made some decisions and won the race because of it,” Cindric said. “I feel like he’s showcased that he has the pace and he has the talent and it’s for everyone else to observe and for him to decide how the next couple races are going to go.”
Contrary to the messaging from his staunchest critics, Gibbs has worked hard to be prepared for this opportunity, and that is where the tears came from.
Now, having begun his career with finishes of first and second, the pressure is marginalized. While most everyone seems to believe Ty is on the fast track to the Cup Series, his dad hasn’t fast-tracked him anywhere.
What comes next is what came before — repetition and validation.
“There’s no reason to stress myself out,” Gibbs said. “I don’t have any expectations ever set for myself. I feel like the same attitude and mental mindset going into every race and that’s to get the best finish I can and the most experience for myself so I can be the best race car driver I can possibly be in the future.”
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