NASCAR Cup Series: 5 possible playoff bid stealers

NASCAR playoff bid stealers: No. 5 – Ty Gibbs

For rookie Ty Gibbs, the 2023 season has been full of learning and growth. While he has shown speed in several races this year, he has yet to put it all together over a full weekend. He currently sits in 18th place in the point standings, 10 points below the cut line.

While Gibbs could easily erase that 10-point deficit in a single weekend, his best shot to make it to the postseason is to win. As mentioned before, the chances remain high of that cut line moving up before the end of the regular season. Last year, it moved all the way up from between the 16th and 17th place drivers to between the third and fourth place drivers.

Despite having yet to record a top five finish and only having four top 10 results, Gibbs has been much faster than his results suggest. In several races, including the race at Talladega Superspeedway in April, he showed speed capable of winning, but issues such as bad pit strategy, accidents, or mechanical failures put a halt to his runs.

Fortunately for him, he still has nine shots to put it all together and potentially pick up a win to lock himself into the playoffs. He has proven that he is an extremely talented driver, winning seven races en route to the 2022 Xfinity Series championship.

Four of the tracks remaining on the regular season schedule are tracks where he has won at in the Xfinity Series in the past, those being Atlanta Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway, Watkins Glen International, and Michigan International Speedway.

The 20-year-old has already made some great strides in his rookie year so far, and a race win could be coming sooner than we think.