Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs is coming off his best showing of the 2025 season — a third-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway — as he arrives at the series‘ biggest track, the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.
It‘s a significant uptick for Gibbs, who has jumped from 34th place in the championship standings three races ago to 20th coming into Sunday’s contest (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio) thanks to that Bristol result and a ninth-place finish in the preceding race at Darlington Raceway. It marks the first back-to-back string of top-10 finishes in 2025 for the 22-year-old past NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and first instance since last summer when he scored a third-place finish at Michigan International Speedway and a fifth at Daytona International Speedway.
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Most importantly, it shows a notable sign of improvement for his No. 54 JGR Toyota team, which has a new crew chief this year in Tyler Allen and several new crew members. He was the only Toyota driver to advance to the second round of qualifying Saturday at Talladega and will roll off 10th in Sunday‘s race.
“For us, I feel the results have shown for sure,‘‘ Gibbs said of the recent change in tide. “But there is not a time where I‘ve felt I was down on my team or was bummed out. I just think it‘s part of the process, we have a new team and I think our guys are really good and I have a lot of faith in our guys. There‘s a lot of things behind the scenes and everyone makes a judgment call, but I know I can run good and that our team is capable of that.
“Sometimes it takes time, and we‘ll get there. I have confidence in our team.‘‘
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