NASCAR News: Joe Gibbs Racing lifting dirt racing restrictions

After more than two years, the football-coach-turned-NASCAR-team-owner, Joe Gibbs, will lift the restrictions that prohibited his Cup Series drivers from extracurricular racing on dirt.

The decision comes as the team prepares to add a second driver with a dirt background to its Cup roster in 2025 (Chase Briscoe is replacing Martin Truex Jr.), plus new interest in dirt racing from a third driver, his grandson Ty Gibbs.

In a statement to The Athletic, Joe Gibbs said he has “always preferred (drivers’) focus remain on racing in NASCAR.”

But with three-quarters of JGR’s Cup roster expressing a desire to race dirt (all but Denny Hamlin), the team “felt it was fair to come up with a process to consider those opportunities.”