By: Ashley McCubbin

When you are currently riding a wave of momentum, it’s never fun to have to hit the pause button. With the ARCA Menards Series off-track for a couple months, that could have been the approach for Ty Gibbs following a pair of podiums.

Instead, the young prospect took advantage of the time off to focus on himself.

“I feel like I’ve worked on myself mentally and physically to get better for these race weekends,” he told the media on Wednesday. “It’s good to spend some time focusing on myself and working on myself, and I feel better. I changed some stuff I needed to change so I’m ready to go back.”

Although Gibbs failed to go into the details, referencing ‘private stuff,’ the main focus was being on more mentally positive.

“I told myself I need to take this time to myself and focus and make myself a better person,” he said. “I definitely did that. I read some stuff and I’m trying to be the best driver that I possibly can be in anyway to do that.”

Though even with the change in attitude, don’t expect him to take his defeats any less moving forward. Gibbs says being hard himself is all about offering motivation to push harder into the future.

“I just want to win so bad that if it doesn’t go that way, I just fall apart,” he explained. “If I feel that I don’t have that extra motivation and am going to be happy to finish 15th, then I don’t need to be doing this. I feel we need to push for wins and I need to push myself like I did there.”

Although the strive for success is to be admired, Gibbs has been criticized by media and fans alike for how he has handled things. His attitude was emphasized earlier this year at Phoenix Raceway when after feeling defeated with a third-place finish, he wore his sunglasses for the post-event interview with NBC. Several people commented about his behavior on Twitter, including NASCAR Cup Series spotter Brett Griffin.

While recognizing he could handle interviews better, Gibbs noted to the media on Wednesday that he’s “definitely keeping my sunglasses on no matter what anybody says.”

For Gibbs, the changes boil down to focusing on one thing – winning. No matter the track he attends, the goal remains the same – as not doing so will result in less confidence, and failing to achieve.

“I feel like you always go into a race trying to win,” he said. “If you’re not doing that, I don’t know what you’re doing in racing and in general, in life. I’m going to try and win all these races that I can possibly can.”

Coming back from the track, not only does he feel he’s ready himself, but also his Joe Gibbs Racing guys are set to go, as well.

“I feel like the guys have had some time to work on the racecars and get everything perfect.” he said. “Sometimes racing every weekend, you don’t always get the time. I think they have all the racecars ready and been focusing a lot on the little things because the little things are what you strive for. So I feel like they’ve been working on that and we’re ready to go back racing.

“I’m tired of sitting at home being grounded; I want to go out and play.”

Gibbs will get his chance behind the wheel when the ARCA Menards East returns to action at Toledo Speedway on June 13.

“I like that track a lot – it’s super fun; it’s like being on a super fast roller coaster,” he commented. “Everything about it is fun. Two of the corners are just about the same, but just totally different. I like tracks like that. I’m different so I think it goes with that.”