NASCAR Cup Series driver Ty Gibbs (54) during the NASCAR Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

Ty Gibbs, No. 54 team rounding the corner after top-five at Bristol

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Apr 13, 2025 8:20 PM ET

Ty Gibbs sat 34th in points six races into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

A 13th-place finish at Martinsville stopped the bleeding and bumped Gibbs up to 31st. A ninth-place finish at Darlington — Gibbs' first top-10 effort of the year — was the No. 54 team's best finish of the season and saw Gibbs rise to 26th in the standings.

On Sunday, a third-place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol served as Gibbs' best finish of the season and pushed the third-year driver to 20th in the Cup Series standings.

After a horrendous start to his third Cup Series campaign, Gibbs has an average finish of 8.3 over the last three races, where the No. 54 team has apparently turned the corner.

Ty Gibbs' third place finish at Bristol marks

- His first Top 5 finish since a fifth at Kansas last fall
- His first third place run since Michigan last August
- His first streak of back-to-back Top 10s since Michigan & Daytona last August pic.twitter.com/T6OpdI7hzs
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) April 13, 2025

Gibbs' slow start to 2025 was disappointing but not completely out of the blue following a late-season collapse from Gibbs and the No. 54 group to end 2024. A first-round playoff exit was all Gibbs had to show for his 2024 season, and crew chief Chris Gayle leaving meant Gibbs would have to quickly build chemistry with new crew chief Tyler Allen.

After a rough start, it appears Gibbs and Allen have figured things out.

"We had a really good, clean day," Gibbs told Fox Sports. "It's been a pretty chaotic start to our year. I think we're back to where we're going to run. I think we're capable of winning a lot this year."

If Gibbs keeps finding himself inside the top five, those wins will eventually start coming.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

More must-reads: