Kyle Petty isn’t always right, but he’s 100% spot-on in his assessment that if Ty Gibbs were not team owner Joe Gibbs’ grandson, he’d likely be gone from the team after this past Sunday’s run-in with the team’s star driver, Denny Hamlin.
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On this week’s edition of Performance Racing Network’s Fast Talk, Petty was quite effusive in his analysis of Joe Gibbs’ refusal to get involved in the situation between Ty and Hamlin. The elder Gibbs has said that instead of getting involved, he would leave it to Ty and Hamlin to work things out, claiming that’s how he’s always handled issues between teammates.
Just before he punted Ty Gibbs, an obviously frustrated Hamlin came over the team radio and asked questions that many fans likely asked then and have continued to ask since then: “What is he [Ty Gibbs] doing? Are they afraid to talk to him? That’s what I feel like. They’re just scared of him.”
Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gale, tried to be diplomatic in his response to his driver, saying, “I don’t know the answer to that right now. I’m just focused on trying to get the 11 the best finish. We’ll talk about it after. I promise.”
Petty essentially answered for Hamlin, saying, “I understand that from Denny. I do understand that because what Denny’s saying is that that is Ty on such a pedestal that everybody’s afraid to tell them that the emperor has no clothes? Okay? Because that’s what you need to tell him. You need to tell him, ‘Learn to drive a race car, and then maybe you’ll win some races.’
“Because he is a phenomenal talent. He does have that talent. He just doesn’t put it in the right places at the right time. That’s the problem.”
The younger Gibbs does have talent, there’s no question about it. He won the Xfinity Series championship in 2022, earning seven wins, along with 16 top-five and 23 top-10 finishes, plus five poles at the tender age of just 20 years old.
Did Joe Gibbs Really Think Promoting His Grandson to Cup Through?
Ty Gibbs was so impressive to the team owner, who just also happens to be his grandfather, that Grandpa Joe decided two-time Cup champ Kyle Busch was expendable and did not renew Busch’s contract, replacing him in the Cup Series with Gibbs in 2023.
Since then, Ty has struggled miserably. In 102 starts as a full-time Cup driver, the younger Gibbs has yet to win his first race, has missed the playoffs twice in the subsequent three seasons (and finished 15th in the only year he did make the playoffs, 2024). And that’s where Petty was correct again.
“That’s the problem with a superior car in the Xfinity Series,” Petty said. “When you go out and kick butt week in and week out, you still don’t know how to race. You didn’t learn how to race outrunning everybody. You don’t know how to race when you dominate a series.”
Elaborating further on the art of ‘race craft,’ he said, “You have to learn how to race. And Ty, I believe in a lot of ways, is still learning how to race. And Denny gave him a lesson [at Loudon]. I’m not saying it was the right lesson, but Denny taught him a lesson.”
If Ty Gibbs Didn’t Have His Grandpa Behind Him, He’d be Fired
Fast Talk host Doug Rice interjected, “If [Ty Gibbs is] racing for any other team with the results he’s had, he doesn’t keep that ride.” To which Petty agreed, saying, “No, this is his last year. If he’s run three years and hadn’t done any more, but especially coming off his Xfinity record. You are looking at a blue chip player that you thought was going to carry your organization forward, and he’s not taking your organization forward.”
Lastly, Petty gave another great example of how Joe Gibbs is choosing nepotism vs. what little Ty has done to date in the Cup Series. “You’ve hired Chase Briscoe, who’s come in and won races right off the bat,” Petty said. “You’ve hired Christopher Bell, who came out of that same thing where he dominated in the Xfinity Series, but he’s stepped up in the Cup Series and is winning races. Denny Hamlin started here and is your mainstay. He’s your horse that’s winning races.”
And Ty Gibbs isn’t. Which leaves one final question: if Gibbs continues to struggle and doesn’t win races, when does Grandpa Joe cut his grandson loose and bring in another driver who can win races?
