“Those Cup Cars Are $20 Million A Year”: How Joe Gibbs Was Convinced to Follow Rick Hendrick’s Path for JGR Drivers

Christopher Bell’s re-introduction to the world of dirt-track racing could not have been more spectacular. The #20 Toyota driver announced his return to grassroots motorsport by beating Kyle Larson in a non-wing feature at the Tulsa Shootout. Part of the credit for Bell’s thrilling win goes to Joe Gibbs, who agreed to field him in the first place. 

The owner of Joe Gibbs Racing had earlier deemed regional dirt events to be too dangerous for his drivers to take part in. But he allowed them to race this time around. Former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace seems to know why.

“Christopher Bell says, ‘Thank you, Joe Gibbs.’ Joe Gibbs said, ‘I don’t want my NASCAR drivers running dirt because you’re gonna hurt yourself and it’s going to destroy my, you know, those Cup cars are $20 million a year and all these employees’. I’m not going to tell you who I called at Joe Gibbs but I said, ‘What made Coach change his mind’? They said Ty Gibbs,” said Wallace in a video posted on X.

By relaxing the rules, restrictions rather, Coach Gibbs seems to have taken a page out of rival team owner Rick Hendrick’s playbook. The Hendrick Motorsports drivers, including Larson, Chase Elliott and William Byron, are regulars at dirt-tracks.

Gibbs’ perception toward dirt-racing perhaps started to change after Chase Briscoe joined the four-car-strong racing outfit. Briscoe is a big dirt-track aficionado.

In fact, three out of Joe Gibbs Racing’s four drivers have cut their teeth on the loose stuff, racing open-wheeled machines such as Sprint cars and midgets in their formative years. So the dirt-racing outings will only help keep themselves on the boil through, what can be looked at as, mid-week practice.

It also builds morale. After all, the drivers were standing by so far watching Larson gaining worldwide attention racing on dirt-tracks.

Coach Gibbs’ grandson Ty, who drives the #54 Toyota for JGR full-time, also has experience on dirt. The 2022 Xfinity Series champion started racing go-karts on loose surfaces in 2015, alongside competing on the road to further his racecraft.

The 22-year-old could also have pushed for dirt-racing entry with his grandfather, supporting the requests from his teammates, Bell and Briscoe. Denny Hamlin, the fourth member of the team, avoided racing on dirt this time.

What does Ty say of the development?

In an interview last year, Ty credited his teammates for swaying his grandfather’s opinion on dirt-racing.

“We have to credit Bell for all the time he’s put in making it happen. Bell’s been trying to have this situation for a long time and he slowly got it put together. Having Chase [Briscoe] come over, he’s a huge dirt guy. I would love to get involved with this. It all just worked its way out,” said Ty,

Regardless of who made it happen, fans of the sport, be it from the NASCAR side or the grassroots level, are happy with the JGR drivers’ entry. After all, they could witness an absolute banger of a finish at the 40th annual Tulsa Shootout to start the racing season.

Despite Larson’s advantage of having run several dirt track events over the past few seasons, Bell made sure everyone realized that he is equally adept on the loose stuff.

The exciting race has set the tone for the upcoming NASCAR season. The action begins at the Bowman Gray Stadium on the first weekend of February, followed by the regular season kicking off from the famed Daytona International Speedway a week later.