Ty Gibbs wanted to race. His team told him “No.”
Welcome to the new NASCAR, where technology, engineering and analytics dictate whether you race or ride. In part, that’s because of a NASCAR point system that rewards you for finishing races, not competing in them.
This means that to a certain extent, drivers no longer control their own destiny. Depending on circumstances, a race strategy is formulated in the pits which projects the best possible outcome and is passed on to the driver, who simply follows instructions.
In Gibbs’ case, this meant conserving fuel at the end of the race at Michigan so he could move up when his competition ran out. And it worked. Gibbs finished third, his best showing of the season, and another JGR driver, Denny Hamlin, won the race using the same strategy.
Gibbs, though, wasn’t happy. Just 22 and now in his third year on the cup circuit, Gibbs is considered somewhat of a prodigy and he wants to win.
“I was going to go until we ran out of fuel,” Gibbs said according to NASCAR’s website. “That was my plan. I think a win is more important than third. It’s good to have a good finish, for sure. Good to have a good day, a good comeback. We started out very horrible. Glad we could come back and get better.
“I’m definitely upset,” he continued. “We work hard to come out here and win. It’s definitely frustrating. It’s unfortunate because I feel like we had the capability to do it. I feel like we showed we were fast enough to do it,” Gibbs said.
Using the Old Guy Sport competition index as a measurement rather than NASCAR’s point system, Gibbs made tremendous improvement from 2023, his first year in Cup when he scored just 61 points, to 2024, when he had 239 including seven top fives. That was good enough for 10th in the OGS competition index final standings. But there were no wins.
In some ways, Gibbs’ approach is a throwback to another time, when drivers just mashed the gas and went all out all the time. In their minds, there were only two possible finishes, first place and no-place.
It’s different now. For one thing, aerodynamics is critical to any team’s success and because of the inability to pass in the NextGen car, getting and staying up front is key to maximizing aerodynamic efficiency.
When you’re up front, air flows smoothly over, under and around the car, making it more stable. In addition, the air coming out from under the car swirls into the trailing car, upsetting its balance.
And because the NextGen cars have low horsepower and slow throttle response, that makes it difficult to pass the lead car without using up your tires. So, once out front in clean air, the lead car can run a comfortable pace without going all out and control the race.
This has led to a new dynamic in NASCAR, where any car that can get the lead tends to stay in the lead. Of the 15 Cup races so far, one driver has led over half the race five times and in four more, one driver has led almost half.
At Martinsville, Denny Hamlin led 274 of 400 laps. At Darlington, William Byron led 243 of 293. At Bristol, Kyle Larson led 411 of 500 and at Kansas, he led 221 of 267. And Byron led 283 of 400 at Charlotte.
Then there were the guys who came close. Kyle Busch, who has really struggled the past two years at Richard Childress Racing, led 42 of 95 laps at Austin, TX, in the first race of the season. He has only led 20 laps since.
Ryan Blaney led 124 of 267 at Homestead and 139 of 300 at Nashville, and Byron led 98 of 200 at Michigan.
Given all that, NASCAR teams have had to totally re-think pit stops. Since it’s so tough to pass on the track, the best way to get to the front is to do something different when you pit.
So teams will short pit, meaning they will bring the car in before they need to hoping fresh tires will get it to the front while the rest of the field is on old tires, or take two tires or no tires in an effort to get the lead.
Because in NASCAR now, track position is everything. You can run your race while everybody behind you is scrambling.
It’s not a guarantee you’re going to win, but it’s as close to one as you can get; of the five drivers who have led more than half the laps in a race, three finished first and two were second.
As for Gibbs, he’s headed for Mexico City and the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course this week along with everybody else in the Cup series. And if he gets a call from the pits to conserve fuel, he’ll probably do it. That doesn’t mean he has to like it, though.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners a Mexico City: 1-Christopher Bell, 2-William Byron, 3-Tyler Reddick. Last year’s winner at Mexico City: No race. Top five in last year’s race at Mexico City: No race.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport Michigan picks: 1-Byron, 2-Denny Hamlin, 3-Kyle Larson. Michigan winner: Hamlin. OGS season record: 6-6.
OGS competition index top 10 after 12 races: 1-Hamlin 314 points, 2-Larson 301, 3-Byron 237, 4-Bell 228, 5-Blaney 180, 6-Ross Chastain 102, Chase Briscoe 102, 8-Bubba Wallace 93, 9-Joey Logano 90, 10-Josh Berry 83.
OGS competition index top 10 on road courses (tracks similar to Mexico City): 1-Bell 54 points, 2-Byron 40, 3-Reddick 35, 4-Kyle Busch 28, 5-Chase Elliott 20, 6-Shane van Gisbergen 11, 7-Wallace 2, Ryan Preece 2.
