Ty Gibbs / No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Supra Preview — Drive for the Cure 250

By:
On:
In: Xfinity Series News

No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Supra News and Notes

  • THREE WINS: Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL will be Ty Gibbs’ 16th 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 207 laps in just 15 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 18 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: 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 18 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, Michigan International Speedway, The Milwaukee Mile and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
  •        MOVING ON UP: Gibbs now has 18 ARCA Menards Series victories and is now tied for 14th on the all-time wins list with Ken Schrader.
  •        FOUR CROWN CHAMPION: Gibbs clinched the CGS Imaging Four Crown championship in the ARCA Series following his second place finish at Du Quoin. 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 Du Quoin 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 CHARLOTTE ROVAL: Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has nine total starts at Charlotte ROVAL in Xfinity competition with two top-five finishes, three top-10 finishes and the team has led 31 laps.
  •        RACE INFO: The Drive for the Cure 250 is scheduled for 3 pm EDT on Saturday, October 9 and will be broadcast on NBC, SiriusXM Channel 90 and PRN.

Ty Gibbs, Driver of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Supra

“It’s a bit of a home race for myself and the team. I haven’t been on the Charlotte road course in an Xfinity car, but I know that Chris Gayle and the 54 boys will bring me a great Monster Energy Toyota Supra. We’ve been pretty strong on the road courses this year and hopefully we will keep that going this week.”

Chris Gayle, Crew Chief of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Supra

“We’ve been strong on the road courses this year and Ty and done a phenomenal job. We won at Daytona and Watkins Glen and hopefully we’ll bring a good Monster Energy Toyota Supra. We’ve run well the last few weeks and with Ty, but we haven’t finished as well as we should have. The points situation for making it out of the round is such that we must finish this race to advance to the next round of the playoffs in the owners championship. It is going to be a very delicate balance of risk versus reward and a missed shift or a wrecked car ends our shot at an owners points title.”

TSC PR

Speedway Digest Staff
Follow Me
Latest posts by Speedway Digest Staff (see all)
Post Views: 115