Ty Gibbs primed to win first career race heading into Food City 500 at Bristol

Folks, if you haven’t noticed in the last few weeks, Ty Gibbs is getting better and finishing each race better than the one before it. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year is primed to pick up his first career win.

Last year about this time, Ty Gibbs went on a streak of four straight top-10 finishes. Slowly, as 2023 came to an end, he earned top-5 finishes. Coming into the 2024 season, the 21-year-old has picked up where he left off.

Through the first month of the season, Gibbs has finishes of P17, P10, P5, and P3. Slowly but surely, he has improved every week and shown speed on a variety of tracks. That shows in his qualifying speed as well.

At Las Vegas, Gibbs started P8. Last week at Phoenix, he was P2 in qualifying. It isn’t just his first win that is around the corner, it is his first pole award as well. And judging by his reaction in the car last week, losing out on the pole, it is something he wants to accomplish very much.

Now, let’s go back to last year’s playoff race at Bristol. In the night race, Ty Gibbs showed his speed again. He qualified P8 and finished the night having led 102 laps and finishing P5 overall. He was second in Stage 2 before losing out, ultimately, to a few other drivers including his teammate Denny Hamlin, who won.

JGR results show Ty Gibbs can win at Bristol

Speaking of Denny’s win at Bristol, that’s another reason to have faith in Ty Gibbs. Not only did a JGR driver win this race last fall, but Christopher Bell, his other teammate, was on the pole.

Now, let’s go back through history. At Bristol, only eight drivers have earned their first career pole at the track. It is a list that includes some stellar names, too: Tim Richmond, Ernie Irvan, Joey Logano, and Erik Jones.

Now, isn’t that something? Those last two names, Logano and Jones, were JGR drivers when they accomplished the feat. When it comes to first career wins, only five have done it and it is quite a group: Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Ernie Irvan, Elliott Sadler, and Kurt Busch.

Should Ty Gibbs win the pole and the race, he would join Irvan as the only driver to get both of their firsts at Bristol. While we’re here having fun, let’s note that should Gibbs win the race he will be the youngest Cup winner ever at Bristol, beating 21-year-old Kyle Busch by about six months for that honor.