Ty Gibbs will remain as an interim driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota TRD Camry for the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series event at Richmond Raceway, where he will be substituting for Kurt Busch.
The news comes as Busch took to social media to announce that he has not received medical clearance to return to on-track competition. The 2004 Cup Series champion continues to recover from concussion-like symptoms he sustained following a qualifying wreck at Pocono Raceway on July 23, which sidelined him from the main event. In addition to Pocono, he has missed the previous two Cup events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and at Michigan International Speedway.
Busch, who last competed at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in mid-July, has already been granted a medical waiver to be eligible for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs, where he is currently in contention to claim a postseason spot by virtue of winning at Kansas Speedway on May 15.
With Busch out, Gibbs, who competes as a full-time Xfinity Series competitor for Joe Gibbs Racing and won the Xfinity event at Richmond in April, will be pulling double-duty between the Xfinity and Cup Series for a fourth consecutive weekend. The 19-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, is coming off a strong weekend at Michigan, where he claimed his fifth Xfinity victory of the season with JGR on Saturday, August 6, followed by his first top-10 career result in NASCAR’s premier series with 23XI after rallying from a late pit road penalty to finish 10th on Sunday, August 7.
Prior to his 10th-place result at Michigan, Gibbs’ previous two finishes in NASCAR’s premier series were 16th and 17th at Pocono and at Indianapolis, respectively.
Gibbs is set to make his fourth career start in the NASCAR Cup Series at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, August 14, with the event’s coverage to occur at 3:00 PM ET on USA Network.
