Ty Gibbs’ mother Heather reveals her true feelings about her son’s ‘concerning’ NASCAR slump

Ty Gibbs' mother, Heather Gibbs, has expressed concern over her son's tumultuous start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver opened the season with a 16th-place finish in the Daytona 500; however, he couldn't produce a better result in the following race weekends.

While JGR is witnessing a high, courtesy of Christopher Bell's three back-to-back wins, Gibbs' performance has become a topic of concern in the Huntersville, North Carolina-based outfit. The #54 Toyota driver encountered troubles right after his Daytona International Speedway battle, succumbing to his first DNF at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The misery continued in the Circuit of The Americas, plummeting the 22-year-old's Toyota Camry to a 34th-place finish despite beginning the 95-lap race from 13th place on the grid. Phoenix's short track proved another blow to Ty Gibbs' pursuit of redeeming his form, resulting in a DNF after a hard crash early in the race.

As a result, while his teammates Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Briscoe are ranked second, 12th, and 20th, respectively, Gibbs is way down in 34th.

That being said, Heather voiced her concern about her son's performance, outlining the 'unfortunate' situation of having two superspeedway races -Daytona and Atlanta -to open the season with.

"I mean, you're concerned. Obviously we want to compete. We want to compete for our sponsors and show up to the track with fast cars every week. And we believe we have that. It's unfortunate the first two races of our season are superspeedways, basically back-to-back," Heather said via Kyle Dalton on X.

"It's hard because your drivers get rattled if they get their bell rung. They're going right back to another track where there's a high probability of crashing. And we had that with Daytona and Atlanta. And so those are kind of hard," Ty Gibbs mother added.

Unlike the current season when Gibbs has failed to salvage a solitary top-10, the 2024 season witnessed a better performance from the #54 Toyota driver, with two top-5s and three top-10s from the first five races.

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Ty Gibbs complains about his #54 Toyota Camry amid Las Vegas troubles

Even though Ty Gibbs surged to a 22nd place finish from a 29th place start, he didn't walk away from the fifth Cup Series race weekend without troubles. The #54 Toyota driver experienced problems with his Camry's rear, failing to find sufficient grip to help him confidently maneuver through the turns on Las Vegas' 1.5-mile tri-oval.

As a result, Gibbs' efforts went more into balancing his NextGen machine rather than focusing on outperforming his rivals. It infuriated the JGR driver, and he didn't hold back from lashing out his concern on the team radio.

"I don't know what to say. I feel like I'm a foot higher than every person on this track. I have no rear grip anywhere, and after about 10 laps, might as well just throw this thing away," Ty Gibbs said via Kelly Crandall on X.

Even though Ty Gibbs is far from making the playoffs, claiming a win in the remaining 20 regular season races could guarantee him a spot in the 10-race road to the championship.