Friday 5: Cup rookie Ty Gibbs turning things around after slow start

Ty Gibbs smiles and laughs. His brother Case recently pitched a shutout in a high school baseball game. His sister Elle was recently accepted by Cornell University.

“I’ve got to step my game up,” Ty Gibbs said with a grin.

He has. The rookie heads into Sunday’s Cup race at Martinsville Speedway with four consecutive top-10 finishes. It marks only the second time since 2018 that a Cup rookie has had four top 10s in a row. Austin Cindric did it last year.

No other Cup driver has more than two top 10s in a row entering Martinsville. Only Tyler Reddick has a better average finish (6.0) than Gibbs (9.3) over the last four races. Gibbs is the first driver since Chase Elliott in 2016 to have four top 10s in the first eight races of their rookie season.

Gibbs’ run is quite a change from how the season started for the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team. He finished no better than 16th in the opening four races of the season.

“It’s just me minimizing mistakes,” Gibbs told NBC Sports of the turnaround that has seen him place ninth three weeks in a row before his 10th-place result last weekend at Bristol.

“When I execute, when the team does, we have great finishes and for sure can finish way better.”

Gibbs’ top-10 streak has him up five spots to 18th in the standings.

A year ago, Gibbs admits he would have been “disappointed” with finishing ninth or 10th in four straight races in the Xfinity Series, but his move to a full-time Cup ride this year has him looking at results differently. He’s pleased but not satisfied.

“There’s times where I’m very frustrated, and I’m trying to make myself feel better and look at the positives,” Gibbs said. “‘OK, I finished ninth in the Cup Series today. I’m 20. That’s pretty good.’ But then … 20% of that