Joe Gibbs Racing’s driver, Ty Gibbs, has had his fair share of controversies in his short career, but this week, he made waves by calling out fellow drivers during an interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Fresh off his second Cup Series win of 2026 at Iowa Speedway, the No. 54 driver took aim at a small piece of NASCAR’s Next Gen machinery, the digital rear-view mirror, while firing off a sly dig at his Cup Series competitors.
Appearing on The Dale Jr Download, the 23-year-old was asked about the possibility of returning to the traditional mirrors drivers used before the Next Gen era. And his answer was immediate, saying, “I’d be 100% for that.”
Much like his peers, be it Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, or the late Kyle Busch, Gibbs sees the digital mirror as something much bigger. In his eyes, it has made one of the Next Gen car’s biggest problems, dirty air and air blocking, even easier to exploit.
According to Gibbs, though, the technology has become so advanced that some drivers won’t survive without it.
Gibbs didn’t mince his words during the discussion about going back to the old-school mirror, saying:
“Honestly, I think if you took the digital camera out of the car I think it would be a mix of drivers that probably even wouldn’t be in the Cup series anymore.” — Ty Gibbs
His argument centers on how much information the device gives a driver in a car compared to the traditional convex mirrors, which can already be difficult to pass.
Gibbs even had a bizarre note on how untraditional the system is, recounting when he saw a similar mirror away from the track. “I saw we had the same mirror in a transit bus,” Gibbs said. “I was in a transit bus in LA, and I was like, ‘Dude, I think that’s the same mirror I run in my Cup car.'”
For the uninitiated, the digital system gives drivers an extremely clear picture of what is happening behind them, allowing them to react almost instantly when another car begins to make a run. And that is where Gibbs believes the problem exists.
The driver behind may have the faster car and the better run, but if the leader can see the move coming immediately, there is little mystery involved. In fact, a quick move into the other lane can disrupt the attack before it ever becomes a legitimate passing opportunity.
“Obviously we want to have a car that races a little better in dirty air, but for the time being, I think if you took those out, I think it’d make the racing a little bit better because you can’t just sit there and look at your iPad and just, blip, go up, and just hose somebody on their line,” Gibbs said.
In hindsight, Gibbs isn’t the first Cup driver to look at the rear-view camera and wonder whether the sanctioning body gave drivers too much information.
Back in 2024, two-time Cup Series champion Larson raised essentially the same issue after the Dover race, arguing that removing the rear-view camera could at least make air blocking more difficult. The Hendrick Motorsports driver’s frustration centered on how easily a driver could see a charging car and immediately move into its air.
Kyle Busch agreed with Larson soon afterward, going even further by saying he was “1000%” in favor of removing the camera and mirror, with the spotter providing the separation between the two drivers.
However, the problem has not disappeared.
The Next Gen car’s struggles in dirty air have remained one of the sport’s most persistent complaints, with drivers and fans regularly debating whether the car allows enough passing once a driver gets stuck behind another competitor.
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