No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota GR Supra News and Notes
- ALREADY PLAYOFF BOUND: By winning the Las Vegas, Atlanta and Richmond NASCAR Xfinity Series races, Ty Gibbs has qualified for the Xfinity playoffs which will begin at Texas Motor Speedway on Sept. 24.
- TALLADEGA: Gibbs has never competed in a NASCAR Xfinity race at Talladega.
- HIGH PERCENTAGE: Gibbs has competed in just 26 NASCAR Xfinity races, but has won seven of them meaning his winning average is 26.9 percent.
- NEW RECORD: Gibbs is the youngest driver ever to reach seven victories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at age 19 years 5 months and 29 days. The previous record was held by Joey Logano.
- 2021: Gibbs completed in only 18 Xfinity races in 2021, but won four races and finished 13th in the Xfinity Series final driver point standings. That earned him the Xfinity Rookie of the Year award.
- WHAT A DEBUT: In Gibbs’ Xfinity Series debut in February 2021 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.
- ARCA CHAMPIONS: Gibbs became the 2021 ARCA Menard Series Champions on the strength of 10 wins, plus one win each in ARCA West and ARCA East.
- ATOP THE PIT BOX: Veteran crew chief Chris Gayle will oversee the No. 54 team’s efforts in the 2022 season. Gale, who is from Little Rock, Arkansas, has led his drivers to two NASCAR Cup Series victories and 33 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, Christopher Bell and John Hunter Nemechek.
- JGR AT TALLADEGA: Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has 63 total starts at Talladega in Xfinity competition with five wins, 18 top-five finishes, 26 top-10 finishes, five poles and the team has led 360 laps.
- RACE INFO: The NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega is scheduled for 4 pm EDT on Saturday, April 23 and will be broadcast on FOX, SiriusXM Channel 90 and MRN.
Chris Gayle, Crew Chief of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota GR Supra
“These superspeedway races are always a wild card. Ty hasn’t been here before, save for an ARCA race last year. At the end of the day, you a just hoping that you are in a good position at the end to hopefully go for the win. We’ll see how our Monster Energy Toyota GR Supra is.”
JGR PR
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