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Ty Gibbs, grandson of Joe Gibbs, to make ARCA debut Saturday

ty gibbs off twitter

Ty Gibbs, the 16-year-old grandson of NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs, will make his ARCA Series debut Saturday in the Pensacola 200 at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida.

The younger Gibbs will split driving duties of the No. 18 Monster Energy/ORCA Coolers Toyota this season, competing in all of ARCA’s short track races, while 2017 ARCA Rookie of the Year Riley Herbst will wheel the car at superspeedway races.

We’re obviously excited to get to Five Flags and get my season started,” Ty Gibbs said. “But we’re equally excited to get to all of the tracks we’re going to race at this season. They’re all different and every one of them has their own challenges. Mark (McFarland, crew chief) has told me a lot about all of them.”

McFarland has stepped back from his duties as co-owner of MDM Motorsports to focus on serving as Gibbs’ crew chief. MDM Motorsports announced at the end of last season that it was withdrawing after two years on the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series circuit and that it would scale back its NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and ARCA programs to just two cars in 2019.

“It’s a lot less stress this year than last year, for sure,” McFarland said. “I am back to having fun. I enjoy being a crew chief. Once I transitioned from driving to being a crew chief, I really came to enjoy working with these young drivers. It’s fun to see these guys figure things out in two or three races that might have taken me a couple years to learn.”

When he takes the green flag Saturday, Gibbs -- who also competes in the K&N East Series for DGR-Crosley Racing (a team owned by NASCAR driver David Gilliland) -- will be seeking his second win of the racing season. He won a late model race at Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) Speedway on February 2, with his grandfather in attendance.

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