● Interstate Batteries – one of the most tenured team sponsors in NASCAR history – began its 32nd season as the founding sponsor of Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) with an expanded presence that featured the brand’s iconic green livery across all four of JGR’s NASCAR Cup Series entries. As the green colors will adorn Ty Gibbs’ car one final time for 2003 this weekend on the Charlotte Roval with the Interstate All Battery Center marks on the car, the final race for Interstate Batteries will be in the penultimate race of the season at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway when Christopher Bell drives with the Interstate colors one final time this season on his No. 20 Camry.
● The Return of ‘ABC’: Gibbs and Company are ready to roll into Charlotte with support from Interstate All Battery Center retail locations throughout North America. Interstate All Battery Center keeps life and business moving with the best batteries, service, and expertise. They make it easy to find the battery you’re looking for, from auto batteries to button batteries and specialty batteries to chargers, flashlights and more. And every center offers FREE auto battery testing at their location. Having a local battery partner also means just-in-time delivery, so you can receive fresh batteries ready to go. Interstate All Battery Center will be displayed on a Cup Series car for the first time since July 2017 when former JGR driver Kyle Busch raced the All Battery Center scheme at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
● Outrageously Dependable: With Gibbs behind the wheel of the Interstate All Battery Center Camry this weekend, fans are encouraged to stop in to one of many local centers, which feature any battery and power accessory needs all in one place for both your home and business. Interstate All Battery Center is a local partner committed to you and your community, recycle more car batteries than they sell and have on-site auto battery testing and installation with no appointments. To learn more, fans can visit https://www.interstatebatteries.com/all-battery-centers to find a store nearby.
● Gibbs has had a strong rookie campaign. He’s earned season-best finishes of fifth on three occasions – at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in July, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in August, and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in September. In all, Gibbs has eight eight top-10s so far in 2023 with five races remaining.
● Gibbs heads to the Charlotte Roval 19th in the driver standings with 655 points. He leads the Rookie of the Year standings with his next-closest competitor Noah Gragson not expected to compete for the remainder of the season.
● Rookie Stripe: Gibbs has experienced a season not atypical of a rookie driver in NASCAR’s top series. He has three top-fives and eight top-10s so far through 31 races, but many other strong runs that didn’t yield the results he might have deserved during the most recent stretch of races.
● At the age of 19 years, 9 months and 20 days, Gibbs made his first career NASCAR Cup Series start last July 24 at Pocono for 23XI Racing. He became the 37th driver younger than 20 years of age to make a Cup Series start. He started at the rear of the field but completed all 160 laps on his way to an impressive 16th-place finish. Best of his 15 Cup Series starts last year was his 10th-place result Aug. 7 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
● Dazzling Debut: Gibbs was victorious in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in the February 2021 race on the Daytona road course. He led 14 of the 56 laps and became the youngest driver to win an Xfinity Series road-course race at 18 years, 4 months and 16 days. The native of Charlotte, North Carolina, also became the second-youngest winner in Xfinity Series history behind Joey Logano, who won in June 2008 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta at the age of 18 years, 21 days.
Ty Gibbs;
You’ve had some time to get used to each track during your rookie season. How much have you learned over the course of the year?
“It’s been good. The whole season has been special, and I learn each and every week. Just got to get my Interstate All Battery Center Toyota Camry in a good position and try to limit our mistakes as much as possible and get the most points we can each and every week. First of all, you just need to enjoy it. Not a lot of guys get to do what we get to do each week and you have to remind yourself of the bigger picture. You just take it week by week and keep working. I’m looking forward to the Roval, which will be the next challenge. I’m really looking forward to the next couple of races and we’ll keep working at it and try to work as hard as we can.”
You’ve raced on the Roval in the Xfinity Series, and last year in the Cup Series with 23XI. What are your expectations for this weekend?
“Excited about the Roval. I do enjoy road-course racing, plus it is a home race, which will be nice. Good to have Interstate Batteries on the car for the final time this year. Norm (Miller, Chairman Emeritus) has been a longtime family friend, and Lain (Hancock, CEO/President) had been great, too. Also, fun to have Interstate All Battery Center on our car this weekend. They have local centers throughout the country with every type of battery that anyone could need. Hopefully we can give them a great run.”
With Interstate Batteries on your car for the final time during your rookie season, has it been fun to have Interstate Batteries along with you several times this year?
“It’s really an honor to be able to run an Interstate Batteries car every time we’ve been able to do it. We had some good runs for them, and others I wished had turned out a bit better. We were able to get a top-10 for them at Bristol Dirt and at the Chicago Street Race, which was really cool. I thought we had a good shot at another top-10 for them at Nashville, but that didn’t end up how we had hoped there on the last pit stop and run of the race. Really proud of what we’ve learned as a team this year and appreciate those guys and all they do for our team as I continue to learn each and every week.”
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