No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra News and Notes
· THREE WINS: Saturday’s Go Bowling 250 at Richmond Raceway will be Ty Gibbs’ 13th career NASCAR Xfinity Series start, but he has already racked up three wins. He scored a win in his series debut in February at the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, in May at Charlotte Motor Speedway and in August at Watkins Glen International. He has scored one pole position (Elkhart Lake) and eight top-five finishes and has led 140 laps in just 12 starts.
· WHAT A DEBUT: In Gibbs’ Xfinity Series debut at the Daytona Road Course, he led 14 of the 56 laps en route to his first career Xfinity Series win. Gibbs became the youngest driver to win a Xfinity road course race at 18 years, 4 months, 16 days. The Charlotte, N.C., native also became the second-youngest winner in Xfinity Series history after Joey Logano who won in June 2008 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta when he was 18 years and 21 days old.
· IN GOOD COMPANY: Gibbs is the sixth driver to win in his Xfinity Series debut, joining Dale Earnhardt, Joe Ruttman, Ricky Rudd, Terry Labonte and Kurt Busch. Those five drivers had already driven in the NASCAR Cup Series before racing in the Xfinity Series.
· GIBBS 2021 SCHEDULE UPDATE: In 2021, Gibbs will compete for an ARCA Championship and in 17 Xfinity races, while also attempting to win the Xfinity Sunoco Rookie of the Year award. His remaining Xfinity schedule has been updated and his remaining races include: Richmond Raceway (September 11), Bristol Motor Speedway (September 17), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (September 25), Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (October 9), Kansas Speedway in Kansas City (October 23) and Martinsville Speedway (October 30).
· A TITLE IN MIND: While Gibbs is set to compete in 17 Xfinity races in 2021, he is competing fulltime in the ARCA Menards Series where he is first in points, and has scored wins at Phoenix International Raceway, Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Toledo (Ohio) Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Mid-Ohio, Iowa Speedway, Winchester (Ind.) Speedway and The Milwaukee Mile. His nine wins are just three short of Tim Steele’s modern-era single season record when he won 12 races in 1997.
· LAP LEADER: By leading all 150 laps in the ARCA race at Milwaukee, Gibbs clinched the Valvoline Lap Leader Award for ARCA in 2021. He has led 1,238 laps through 17 races and with only 500 scheduled laps of racing left, Gibbs leads Corey Heim by 833 laps in the standings.
· MOVING ON UP: Gibbs now has 17 ARCA Menards Series victories and is now tied for 15th on the all-time wins list with Bob James, Bob Schacht and two-time series champion Bobby Bowsher.
· FOUR CROWN CHAMPION: Gibbs clinched the CGS Imaging Four Crown championship in the ARCA Series following his second place finish at DuQuoin. The Four Crown is a four-race series within the ARCA Menards Series that celebrates a diverse schedule with events at each of the types of tracks it visits: superspeedways, road courses, short tracks and dirt ovals. Gibbs entered the dirt race at DuQuoin having won all three of the prior Four Crown races, at Kansas Speedway (superspeedway), at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (road course) and Winchester (Ind.) Speedway (short track).
· GIBBS IN 2020: Gibbs captured an ARCA Menards Series-high six wins in 2020, despite only running a partial schedule. He also scored 12 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes in his 16 starts last season to help claim the organization’s first ARCA Menards Series Owner’s Championship.
· ATOP THE PIT BOX: Veteran crew chief Chris Gayle will oversee the No. 54 team’s efforts this weekend. Gale, who is from Little Rock, Arkansas, has led his drivers to two NASCAR Cup Series victories and 28 Xfinity Series wins. The list of drivers Gayle has visited victory lane with includes: Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Sam Hornish Jr., Erik Jones, Elliott Sadler and Christopher Bell.
· JGR AT RICHMOND: Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has 109 total starts at Richmond Raceway in Xfinity competition with 10 wins, 29 top-five finishes, 55 top-10 finishes and eight pole-starting positions. The team has led 2163 laps
· RACE INFO: The Go Bowling 250 is scheduled for 2:30 pm EDT on Saturday, September 11 and will be broadcast on NBCSN, SiriusXM Channel 90 and MRN.
Ty Gibbs, Driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra
“We had two good weeks in ARCA winning at Milwaukee and then finishing second at DuQuoin, but now it is time to turn the attention back to the Xfinity Series. I haven’t been to Richmond before, but it’s a good track. I know Chris Gayle and the 54 boys will bring me a good Toyota Supra and hopefully we can get a good finish.”
Chris Gayle, Crew Chief of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra
“Ty has done really well this year for us and we are hoping he’ll have a good run at Richmond on Saturday. It’ll be a good challenge for him as Richmond is generally a low grip racetrack, which he’ll have to figure out. It’s just all part of getting him laps and helping him learn these race tracks. Richmond is a fun track and we won there a few years ago with Kyle (Busch). We’ll bring a good Toyota Supra and see what we can do.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
