NASCAR Playoffs Bubble Battle: Ty Gibbs vs Daniel Suárez

Another week in the NASCAR Cup Series and another Playoff Bubble Battle. This time we’re highlighting Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suárez. The Trackhouse Racing driver enters the weekend 18th overall in the standings and 23 points off the cutline. Meanwhile, Gibbs sits at 19th, just five points below Suárez.

The two drivers will have to have big performances over the next five weeks. There are others like Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell that have taken slight leads over the cutline of 27 and 17 points, respectively.

If Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suárez want to find themselves in the playoffs, the next four weeks leading to Daytona will be paramount. Looking back on the last 10 races of the season, Kansas to Pocono, the two playoff bubble drivers are almost dead even.

Suárez has an average finish of 19.4 in his last 10 races. He was P2 in the rain-shortened Atlanta race. While road courses should be right up his alley, the Trackhouse driver has struggled at Sonoma and Chicago Street Course. Suárez found himself out of the Pocono race early this week and finished P36, losing out on those points he needs.

Meanwhile, Ty Gibbs has an average finish of 20.3 in his last 10 races. P9 at Chicago and P5 at Pocono in the last month, Gibbs might be ready to make that playoff push. Let’s not forget that Gibbs has a Richmond win in the Xfinity Series in 2022. He also has the best odds out of the bubble drivers to win this weekend.

So, let’s get into the Richmond comparison.

Ty Gibbs vs Daniel Suárez at Richmond Raceway

It really is interesting comparing these two drivers. They have similar stats leading up to this race. Both of them are really solid, historically, on-road courses. Even if Ty Gibbs has just a few years of “history” on the race track, it is impressive.

This is a track that Daniel Suárez’s teammate Ross Chastain has performed well at. So, the good news is Trackhouse Racing has speed here. Bad news? Suárez just doesn’t have any speed on this track.

In 12 starts at Richmond, Suárez only has two top-10 finishes. His best finish was P7 while in the No. 19 for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2017. In his last three races at the track, he finished P16, P19, and P23.

Ty Gibbs on the other hand, has the power of JGR behind him. The organization does very well at Richmond, particularly this second race at the track. Gibbs finished P7 in his first Xfinity Series start at the track. Then, he went on to win at Richmond in 2022 on his way to the championship that season. Last year filling in for Kurt Busch, Gibbs was a disappointing P36. However, Gibbs’ P9 finish earlier this season showed that he still has a knack for the short track.

These two drivers are going to have to battle hard if they want to get into the playoffs. In this matchup, it does seem that Ty Gibbs has the upper hand.