NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs recently gave his drivers the green light once again to pursue racing interests beyond the Cup Series, and Christopher Bell seized the opportunity, winning his third Chili Bowl Nationals title, as well as scoring a victory with the World of Outlaws at Volusia Speedway Park. In fact, his success on dirt has also seamlessly carried over to NASCAR’s top echelon, where he’s now secured three consecutive victories.
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Following in similar footsteps, Bell’s teammate, Ty Gibbs, is set to re-enter the dirt-racing realm. Piloting the #84 Monster Energy Drink machine, in a Dark green and black theme, Gibbs will compete in the upcoming High Limit Racing series events, making his debut this season on dirt at the next scheduled event. Nonetheless, Gibbs is no stranger to racing on dirt surfaces.
His early racing days trace back to Outlaw Karts at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, N.C., before eventually transitioning to paved tracks and climbing NASCAR’s ranks.
The #54 NASCAR Cup driver has increasingly ventured onto dirt tracks ever since his grandfather loosened the reins on drivers competing outside NASCAR.
His first stint came last fall at California’s Ventura Raceway in the renowned Turkey Night Grand Prix, followed shortly thereafter by a respectable Chili Bowl debut, where he clinched victory in one of the event’s preliminary rounds and secured a P6 finish in an F-main.
Fans, nonetheless, remain unconvinced by Gibbs’s recent decision, voicing pointed critiques on his new direction. One fan bluntly speculated Gibbs’s urgency to participate in the High Limit Racing series was simply because “They saw what happened to Bell once he started dirt racing again and decided they had to get Ty in a sprint car asap.”
Let’s go sprint car racing, @TyGibbs! 😎
The @NASCAR star will run both the @JoeGibbsRacing #54 Cup car & now @_CBIndustries, @MonsterEnergy #84 sprint car this week.@LVMotorSpeedway is the first of several @Kubota_USA High Limit races Ty has planned!
— High Limit Racing (@HighLimitRacing) March 11, 2025
Another openly mocked his driving prowess, declaring, “He can’t drive his way out of a wet paper bag. This should be great comedy.”
One more fan took a sly dig at Gibbs’s NASCAR Cup racing performance, writing, “He’ll run in the back just like in nascar.” Further skepticism arose from fans questioning Gibbs’s standing as a “NASCAR Star,” a designation provided by High Limit Racing in their recent post. One fan sarcastically commented, ““Star” is a stretch,” openly challenging that label’s validity.
Among the full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers, Gibbs currently finds himself languishing at the bottom end of the standings — sitting in P37, narrowly ahead of only two full-time drivers: Cole Custer and Cody Ware.
It is imperative that Gibbs quickly steadies the ship and finds a rhythm. Alarmingly, in his last eight outings, Gibbs has managed just two finishes inside the top 30, while only achieving 8 top-5 and 4 top-10 finishes in the last 40 races.
Overall, his performance trend leaves much to be desired, with consistency nowhere in sight. He finished P25 at Phoenix, another disappointing performance following his P32, and P34 finishes at Atlanta and COTA this season.
