Ty Gibbs Goes on Immature Profanity-Laced Radio Tirade at Chris Gabehart in Watkins Glen
Joe Gibbs Racing empierced a wild radio drama at Watkins Glen, involving Ty Gibbs and his crew’s strategist Chris Gabehart.

Chris Gabehart and Ty Gibbs (Via motorsport.com and IMAGO)
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The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season so far has been a massive struggle for the 2022 Xfinity Series champion Ty Gibbs, as his desperate search for maiden Cup win hit new lows. This has brought out the worse in him on team radio, with frustration boiling over. Chris Gabehart, competition director of Joe Gibbs Racing and the young driver had a heated exchange at Watkins Glen on Sunday.
The former crew chief of Denny Hamlin, who got the promotion as CD was assigned the post of race strategist for the No. 54 team, as Ty Gibbs was the only winless driver at JGR in 2025 struggling to produce any good outings. But the move hasn’t yielded any positive results for him, as he is currently going through a three-race streak of finishing outside top 20.
So, when Chris Gabehart made a different strategy call at WGI that he expected, when they were already behind the leading pack, Ty Gibbs lost his shit and went on a radio rant slamming the car as well the team’s execution. This didn’t sit well with the most successful crew chief working under Joe Gibbs this season.
Gabehart didn’t hesitate to call out the 22-year-old driver and reminded him that he shouldn’t be making strategy calls, considering he doesn’t have all the data about the race. He was indirectly asserting the rant was immature and urging the No:54 driver to focus on racing faster. Ty Gibbs had a sarcastic response to the senior crew member, showcasing how heated the situation was.
Ty Gibbs: I don’t have the rear tires to do sh*t… We’re fu**ed right now, so we’ve got to do something.
Chris Gabehart: Well I’m sure you’ve got a real good understanding then from inside the car. So you know, you can call the strategy if you want or you can keep rolling. But I would do the best I could to go as fast as I can.
Ty Gibbs: Ten-four!
No:54 team radio, via Jeff Gluck.
Onboard video of Ty Gibbs and crew chief Chris Gabehart jawing at each other over handling/strategy.
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) August 11, 2025
Gibbs had compared his rear tires to basketballs just before this. He started hemorrhaging positions and came to pit road a few laps afterwards. https://t.co/Dx2y2tS4f3 pic.twitter.com/N2pRwIIWs6
Chris Gabehart explained how things got heated with Ty Gibbs
After the race, Chris Gabehart talked to the media about the radio drama and was pretty transparent about how everything played out. He admitted that things got heated with his driver, with the hot temperature alongside the overall frustration. But also highlighted that drivers don’t know enough in the situation where Gibbs tried to make a strategy call.

Of course, it’s heated. It’s a hot day, and the driver’s working his butt off in there and doesn’t know the details of who’s on what for strategy. There was a caution that fell there early in Stage 2 that really split the field a lot of different ways. So, for drivers, that’s always the most confusing time because they don’t know how to measure their car against whom and what’s the next play…
Chris Gabehart said.
Later talking about the same topic, Chris Gabehart highlighted how each driver at Joe Gibbs Racing reacts to certain situations. He pointed out that keeping the drivers less confused regarding during races is one of the important things they have to do and on Sunday with Gibbs, they weren’t efficient enough in doing so.
It’s our job up top to try to rein that in when needed, or give enough information to be pertinent, but not so much that it’s confusing all those things. And Ty is different than Denny is different than Chase Briscoe is different than Bell…So, you’ve got to figure out how to get the most of them out of those moments, and today, I don’t think we did.
Chris Gabehart added.
#NASCAR … JGR’s Chris Gabehart discusses the radio chatter with Ty Gibbs during Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen pic.twitter.com/NqMbOp3rWI
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) August 10, 2025
The comments from the senior Joe Gibbs Racing official shows the frustration regarding the No:54 team underdelivering this season and the young racer finding it hard to match his veteran teammates, despite having two-year experience in the top tier. It would be interesting to see if Gibbs can prove doubters wrong and secure playoffs with two more races left in regular season.
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