Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Heather Gibbs have a few things in common. When they sat down to talk on the Business of Motorsports podcast for Dirty Mo Media, the conversation flowed across several points before arriving on their children and the spotlight on them. 

In the constant and ever-increasing conversation around nepotism, the two racing moms had a few things to clear up. 

Not only are both their children drivers, but both ladies also sit pretty high up in their respective organizations, with Kelley Earnhardt Miller being the CEO of JR Motorsports and Heather Gibbs currently the COO at Joe Gibbs Racing. 

Kelley hosted Heather on the podcast and asked her how she felt about the conversations around Ty being born with a silver spoon. Heather revealed something that would come as a shock to racing fans. Ty Gibbs’ mother said:

“Ty, he didn’t start running go-karts till he was like 12. He was old for getting into the racing business. He wanted to race bicycles. He wanted to do the Tour de France one day. He loves road bikes and mountain bikes. So we were kind of late into racing.”

Coming from a racing family, most would expect that Ty Gibbs was born to get behind the wheel of a race car, but he only picked up at 12, meaning the effort he put in to get into the Cup series within just 7 years since getting into go-karts. 

Heather Gibbs added, “He kind of came into it and just having that target on your back everywhere you go, ‘You’re a silver spoon’ or  ‘someone’s writing the check for you,’ and it’s funny because for us it was great for Ty just to be able to learn to have grit.”

Gibbs recalled her husband Coy telling Ty, “You go win, and they’ll talk about you.”

While the approach was always practical for Ty Gibbs’ parents, Heather Gibbs also spoke about how the JGR 54 driver has developed a wall around himself.

Heather Gibbs on why Ty Gibbs is guarded

Being a racer in itself is not easy, and then having the talk of nepotism or being undeserving comes into the picture. Kelley Earnhardt Miller told Heather Gibbs how she has seen Ty as someone who is reserved and also praised how her son Wyatt Miller warmed up to Ty Gibbs. 

Heather Gibbs responded to the question about Ty being reserved and said on the same podcast why that is the case. 

Heather said, “He’s definitely guarded. It’s hard in our sport. These young kids come up; we’re watching them under a microscope. They say stupid things, they do stupid things, you’re doing it in middle school, in high school, but they’re on the national stage.”

According to Heather Gibbs, it’s the constant scrutiny around him that has made Ty Gibbs put up a wall around himself, where his personality is now perceived as a reserved one. 

That wall may be helping the 54 JGR Toyota driver. He is currently 4th in what is his best season so far, with a genuine shot at being a title contender with just 8 races to go before the Chase. 

Do you feel that Ty Gibbs has too much scrutiny and criticism on him? Let us know. 

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason