Ty Gibbs will run the full 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season in the #54 Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing with Monster Energy sponsorship.
What, this doesn’t surprise you?
Gibbs being elevated to a full-time Xfinity schedule is perhaps one of the biggest no-brainers in recent memory. As an 18-year-old in 2021, Gibbs crushed the series in his eighteen-race schedule with four wins: his series début at the Daytona Road Course, Charlotte, Watkins Glen, and Kansas. He is one of just five drivers to win in their maiden Xfinity start, but the first to do so with no Cup Series experience whatsoever.
As he was not running every Xfinity race in 2021 due to age restrictions and the obvious assumption that nobody would have expected him to dominate so easily even if in superior equipment, he was instead racing for the ARCA Menards Series championship. Battling with Corey Heim, Gibbs once again destroyed the field with ten wins and top fives in all but one race en route to the championship. In forty-seven career ARCA starts since 2019, he has a whopping eighteen wins and forty-two top tens.
“I’m excited to get going on the 2022 season,” said Gibbs. “[…] Chris Gayle and the crew guys from the #54 were great last year and hopefully we can have even more success this year. Of course, I can’t thank everyone at Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) enough for all their support as well.”
The grandson of JGR owner Joe Gibbs, he previously finished runner-up in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series East championship before moving up to the national series.
JGR’s #54, whose owner is officially listed as Gibbs’ father Coy, was previously the multi-driver car, a responsibility that has been transferred to the #18. Besides Gibbs, the #54 was piloted by Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Ty Dillon, Denny Hamlin, John Hunter Nemechek, and Martin Truex Jr. in 2021. The #54 won eleven races and finished second in the owners’ championship.