Ty Gibbs Leaves Package Calls to NASCAR After Talladega Setback

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Ty Gibbs Leaves Package Calls to NASCAR After Talladega Setback

Originally posted on RFKRacingDigest
By Chionia Libania Colaco | Last updated Apr 26, 2026 11:05 PM ET

The Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega was a race to forget for Ty Gibbs. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver crashed in the second stage of the Cup Series race on Sunday, the foundations for which were seemingly laid during the “Big One” some laps before.

On lap 122, his No. 54 suffered a sudden right-front tire failure. This caused the car to stray high on the track, and Gibbs had barely any time to react. The impact was quite evident as the nose of the car folded up on contact.

After Gibbs was seen and released from the infield medical center, he spoke with the media. He was questioned by reporter Matt Weaver whether there was something about the package that needed to be tried at Pre-season Thunder to improve Superspeedway racing.

The 23-year-old replied, saying, “I don’t really care. I’ll just keep looking forward to Texas. I mean, I don’t really know what they’re gonna do. And the adjustments, I mean, I’m not gonna make big game calls like 2023. I’ll just let NASCAR figure it out, and the teams figure it out. I’ll just keep looking forward to Texas.”

Ty Gibbs 'doesn’t really care' about why the superspeedway racing product is what it is right now, will leave it up to NASCAR to make changes, and he's looking forward to Texas pic.twitter.com/8SBvWC0kgt
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) April 26, 2026

On lap 115 of the race, a huge crash involving nearly 25 cars brought the race to a halt. During this crash, Ty Gibbs picked up some damage that could have played a role in his tire failure.

The drivers have been very vocal about NASCAR’s current superspeedway package, which is big on fuel saving and maintaining track position. This has made racing unpleasant for many of the drivers.

Joey Logano, who was involved in the Big One, was critical about the Next Gen car, saying, “Pick your poison. What do you want with this car? Do you want to save fuel or do you want to crash?”

Eight drivers, including Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano, did not finish the race.

Ty Gibbs looks back on ‘unfortunate’ Talladega end

It was only two weeks ago that Ty Gibbs secured his maiden NASCAR Cup Series race win at Bristol Motor Speedway. And to have an unexpected wreck at Talladega on Sunday showed how volatile the NASCAR world works.

Speaking to the media about his progress in the race until the crash, he said, “Well, we had a really good first stage in our SAIA Camry. Unfortunately, not a lot of people pitted with us, and we just barely made it on the lead lap at the end of the first stage. I thought we were really fast. I thought our car was really good, but didn’t end well. Unfortunate end of the day for us.”

Despite “not a lot of luck at the roulette table at Talladega”, Gibbs remains excited for the next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. However, he has dropped one place in the standings to fifth.

This article first appeared on RFKRacingDigest and was syndicated with permission.

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