Joe Gibbs Racing already benefitting from its new racing policy newsthirst.

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

Joe Gibbs Racing’s new policy to allow drivers to race open-wheel cars outside of their NASCAR obligations has proved its worth over the last few weeks.

Christopher Bell smiled ear-to-ear after winning the Tulsa Shootout and the opening-day race of champions at the Chili Bowl. Ty Gibbs smiled after his first real competitive midget-car race — something not always seen in a good-but-not-great day in a stock car.

Joe Gibbs has every reason to feel concern over his drivers. Alex Bowman missed a few weeks in 2023 when he broke his back in a sprint-car crash.

Bowman hasn’t raced in a sprint car since then, but it’s been his own choice.

“I want to get back to sprint-car racing for sure,” Bowman said in December. “The winged sprint-car deal is so difficult. You may as well call it Cup racing at a high level.

“I want to get back to that and be able to succeed at that. But certainly probably not the smartest thing to try to do when I’m Cup racing at the same time.”

Bowman doesn’t fit great in a midget car, so he didn’t sweat just being a team owner at Chili Bowl.

If Bowman is willing to hang up his racing shoes and not race some other styles for fun, others shouldn’t hesitate to follow his lead if they want.

But a driver who can get additional seat time — yes, it can be dangerous, but it’s seat time — in an era when Cup drivers don’t receive much practice time, can view the extracurricular racing as one that can help keep the driver sharp.

Honing reaction skills and keeping in racing shape can’t be undervalued. If the driver is willing to take the risk, the driver should have the ability to do so.

That might mean having a clause in the contract that could jeopardize the job if the driver gets hurt (or at least jeopardize salary and pay). David Malukas learned that the hard way in IndyCar when a broken wrist from a mountain biking accident last year pretty much cost him his McLaren ride.

With a three-month offseason (and one of more than five months in IndyCar), drivers likely need something to fill that adrenalin rush. Thriving on the thrill of going fast is often an attribute of elite drivers.

Add to that, thriving on the thrill of competition, and that’s what drivers last weekend at the Chili Bowl got in abundance. And it’s also what drivers in the Rolex 24 sports-car race this weekend will gain as well.

Bell and Gibbs will likely enter the 2025 season with a little more pep in their step, a little bit more joy as they walk in the garage just because their most recent memory of racing is a good one. It wasn’t the end of last season; it was having fun on the dirt at the beginning of this one.

That can go a long way when, for Cup drivers, they see a 38-race weekend schedule looming ahead. As Joe Gibbs will likely realize, the reward, just like the risk, reaches well beyond the specific open-wheel race.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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