Ty Gibbs declines to discuss sudden death of his father
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ty Gibbs on Thursday declined to debate the dying of his father, which occurred simply hours after the younger NASCAR driver clinched the Xfinity Collection championship final month.
Gibbs was requested about his grandfather, Corridor of Famer Joe Gibbs, telling the staff at Joe Gibbs Racing all of them needed to transfer ahead, at the same time as they mourn the sudden dying of 49-year-old Coy Gibbs.
Coy Gibbs died in his sleep simply hours after his 20-year-old son gained the Xfinity Collection title on Nov. 5 at Phoenix Raceway.
“For proper now, I’m not going to the touch on every other topic in any respect, so I’m simply going to stay with all of the racing questions and I’ll go from there,” Ty Gibbs mentioned earlier than NASCAR’s annual awards ceremony.
The Gibbs household has made no public statements since confirming Coy Gibbs’ passing shortly earlier than the NASCAR season finale. Ty Gibbs didn’t race within the Nov. 6 finale and had made only one public look earlier than Thursday, courtside at a Charlotte Hornets sport along with his youthful brother, a cousin and one other driver.
Ty Gibbs was promoted to NASCAR’s high Cup collection on Nov. 15, an anticipated announcement void of any celebration as JGR mourned the lack of Gibbs’ father. Ty Gibbs took the spot left when Kyle Busch left for Richard Childress Racing.
Joe Gibbs, the NASCAR and NFL Corridor of Famer, misplaced each his sons one month earlier than their fiftieth birthdays. J.D. Gibbs additionally was 49 when he handed away in 2019 of a degenerative neurological illness, and Coy Gibbs was the NASCAR crew’s vice chairman on the time of his dying.
Ty Gibbs, who turned 20 in October, mentioned he by no means considered skipping NASCAR’s awards ceremony. That included selecting up his championship ring that he wore to media appearances, together with a cap commemorating his Xfinity title.
“I acquired somewhat paranoid as a result of it acquired tight on one finger and I pulled it off and it was, like, tight,” Ty Gibbs mentioned of his new ring. “So I used to be like, ‘Oh, I’m simply going to go away it on and never contact it.’ So I actually loved it. It’s cool. It’s positively a special, I’ve by no means had a hoop earlier than, so it’s positively actually cool.”
Ty Gibbs additionally went to a Toyota occasion and tried a few of Nashville’s scorching rooster. He additionally talked about taking the No. 54 with him to his new Cup automotive, the identical quantity he used the previous two seasons whereas successful 11 of 51 races within the Xfinity Collection and the championship within the season finale at Phoenix.
Gibbs can be shifting up with Chris Gayle, his crew chief throughout this 12 months’s championship season.
His first nationwide collection title ended a bumpy season for Ty Gibbs, who scrapped with different drivers, was fined by NASCAR, after which price JGR driver Brandon Jones a spot within the championship finale by spinning him out of the lead on the ultimate lap at Martinsville Speedway.
If Gibbs had merely stayed in second behind Jones, each JGR drivers would have made the championship race and Toyota would have had two entries. Joe Gibbs promised penalties could be coming for his grandson, however the crew needed to get by means of championship week first.
Then Coy Gibbs died at a Phoenix-area resort the morning after the Xfinity Collection season finale.
“Hopefully I could make the very best of this entire state of affairs subsequent 12 months,” Ty Gibbs mentioned.
He mentioned he is additionally working laborious to study extra about how his grandfather’s race crew works.
“It’s my household’s enterprise, and so we’ve been taking good care of that,” Ty Gibbs mentioned. “And there’s loads of nice individuals and we have now loads of nice spotters, loads of nice drivers and loads of nice crew chiefs. So now it’s time to go and put it collectively and go do the very best we will in 2023.”
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