Gibbs leaves no room for mistakes
He leads the whole way in ARCA’s Sprecher 150
WEST ALLIS – If Ty Gibbs wanted to brag Sunday, he’d have had every opportunity. Every right, even. That’s just not who he is.
In fact, Gibbs caught himself saying something that could have sounded boastful when in fact he was paying a compliment to a racetrack he hadn’t seen until the morning and practically tripped over himself in clarifying what he meant.
That might have been the biggest mistake Gibbs made all day.
The 18-year-old won the pole for the Sprecher 150, got the jump he needed at every green flag and led the whole way in the ARCA Menards Series’ return to the Milwaukee Mile after 14 years.
“It’s more of a driver’s track,” Gibbs said, “and I’m not saying that because I won. And I’ll never boast about myself. Ever.
“But I feel like it takes a little more of a driver at this track. It’s more of a New Hampshire, Phoenix. There’s a lot of different places to move. I feel like we moved up and ran all different kinds of grooves. It’s fun to do that to where you’re not locked into one groove.”
But Gibbs was locked in wherever he needed to be, as he has so much of this season.
He managed tires like a veteran on a 90 degree afternoon when the wide, flat track gobbled them up and still had plenty of rubber left for a long, smoky burnout.
Gibbs finished 1.8 seconds ahead of another 18-year-old, Sam Mayer. Daniel Dye was third, followed by Taylor Gray, Sammy Smith and Corey Heim.
ARCA uses prescribed breaks rather than live pit stops as a way to keep budgets in check, and for Milwaukee they came at 50-lap increments.
Mayer lined up sixth for the start of the third segment, worked his way to third before the race’s only natural caution and then got Dye for second on a restart with 23 laps to go.
“Once we got to second, it was just a matter of (Gibbs) making a mistake or slip to let me get close,” Mayer said. “It’s just so tough because toward the end our cars were pretty much exactly the same (speed), I think.
“You can’t really gain anything on him because he’s a good race-car driver and he’s not really going to make mistakes and throw a good race car away and either am I. We probably both ran as good as the cars were capable of right there. And if the cars are the same and I’m a second behind … I ain’t gonna gain that second back.”
The top two had considerably different days: Gibbs and Joe Gibbs Racing team got his No. 18 Toyota right in time for qualifying, whereas Mayer and Bret Holmes Racing needed every opportunity the race breaks provided.
“We, to say the least, really sucked at the beginning, and my team is smart enough and good enough that we were able to make pretty much an overhaul to the car through the race at those breaks and made it a ton better,” Mayer said. “It was night and day different. We fell back to 11th or something like that at one point, but were able to fight back.”
Gibbs was aware of Mayer, just not particularly concerned.
Again, that’s not his style. Worry wouldn’t have been any help.
It’s a process that has worked well for Gibbs as he racked up nine victories in ARCA, one in ARCA East and three in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, including his debut.
If you remind Gibbs about the season he’s having, he’ll smile, say thank you and give thanks, first to God, then to his family and his team and sponsors. The numbers have meaning to him, in the same way a win at the Mile with its 112 years of history is “super cool.”
But don’t expect Gibbs to get caught up in the holy cow moments he’s had this season, even as often as they’ve come.
“That’s something I’ve definitely battled with because you can be happy and then you can say you’re not satisfied, you’re not getting enough wins when you have 13,” Gibbs said.
“Every once in a while (those moments happen). I’d say more when I cross the start finish line is when I have those. I just try to let them go and focus on the next thing.
“I can’t go back in time. I can only look forward. Be thankful of the past but work hard and look forward to the next future races.”