Steve Letarte is one of the best judges of young driving talent. With over 20 years of experience as a pit crew member, as a NASCAR Cup crew chief, and in his current role as a TV analyst for nearly the last decade, the 46-year-old Letarte can point to a driver and predict positive results.
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And even though we’re now in the second round of the NASCAR Cup playoffs, and with the number of compelling storylines of the 12 drivers still in contention for the championship, Letarte is keeping his eyes on a young driver who not only didn’t make the playoffs this year, but has also not won his first career Cup race yet.
Letarte said on the NASCAR After The Race online show that he believes Ty Gibbs, grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, is primed to earn his first Cup reason either in the seven remaining races this season or in the first half of next season.
Sure, Gibbs, who turns 23 on Oct. 4 this year, did not qualify for the playoffs this season (after finishing 15th last season, his first and only playoff appearance thus far). But Letarte still feels very strongly about Gibbs’ abilities and his potential to finally earn his first career NASCAR Cup victory.
“Ty Gibbs, he’s still winless, but I was impressed,” Letarte said. “I know that sounds weird, but I’ve seen him make other mistakes that I thought were kind of youth or inexperience or frustration.”
A costly mistake cost Gibbs a win or a potential top-five finish at Bristol
Had it not been for a critical mistake late in the race—he missed the entrance to pit road—Gibbs likely could have finished much higher than the 10th place showing he ultimately scored. Had it not been for the pit road error, he may have captured a top-five finish.
“This was all the right type of mistake,” Letarte said. “It was a driver trying too hard. It’s hard to fault a guy for trying too hard.”
Letarte feels Gibbs learned a very valuable lesson with his mistake, but at the same time, Bristol is one of the most difficult tracks to get onto pit road—and to make sure you’re coming in the right entrance (Bristol has two different ways to get onto pit road).
“This is one that I think he’s going to want to get back,” Letarte added. “I feel like he had a car capable of winning the race. I think he was doing everything right. It was a mistake we’ve seen a lot of drivers make, but that just reminds us when you say, ‘Hey, [Christopher] Bell come out of nowhere and won the race.’ Well, that’s how much stuff you have to do, right?”
Gibbs has looked strong in the last several races
Gibbs has three top 10 finishes in his last four starts: eighth in the regular season finale at Daytona, plus back-to-back 10th-place finishes at Gateway and Bristol. In fact, Gibbs was one of three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers who finished in the top 10, including race winner Chase Briscoe. The fourth JGR driver, points leader and Gateway winner Denny Hamlin, had an off night and finished a disappointing 31st.
Fellow host and NASCAR journalist Alex Weaver agreed with Letarte and then interjected a very poignant observation. “You did make an interesting comment in the booth about the first one’s the hardest,” Weaver said to Letarte about Gibbs’ potential to finally earn that first Cup victory. “The first is so hard to get, but it’s also, you have to have experience,” she added.
“It’s a matter of when Ty Gibbs gets his first win, not if he gets his first win. And he has been knocking on the door numerous amounts of times. But this one, it looked like it may be the 54’s shot. And man, he missed pit road,” Weaver summed up.
Gibbs has reached a milestone that makes him primed to win soon
Letarte is a longtime believer that once a driver makes 100 starts in the Cup Series, that driver is primed not only for a first win, but multiple wins after that.
“I think you need a hundred starts in the Cup Series before your talent is willing to be evaluated, especially in my opinion,” Letarte said. “So, for Ty Gibbs, even though he’s been in premier equipment, yeah, it takes a hundred. He’s just now, I think about 115 starts [Gibbs has exactly 116 starts, with zero wins but two runner-up and six third-place finishes in his Cup career], and I think now’s the time where we should expect him to win a race.”
“I don’t know if it’ll happen this year, but I would be shocked if we get to the [Coca-Cola] 600 next year in May and Ty Gibbs doesn’t have one or two wins.”
Weaver backed that up with the belief that Gibbs’ first win will most likely come on a one-mile or a mile-and-a-half track. “I do think it comes fairly early next year,” to which Letarte agreed, “that’s what I think, like a spring Phoenix winner or a Las Vegas winner.”
It now remains to be seen how soon the No. 54 driver proves his mettle in the top level of stock car racing.
