Grandson of Joe Gibbs, the Hall of Fame team owner, raced like a grizzled veteran in winning the Xfinity race on Saturday at Richmond Raceway.
It would be insulting to call Ty Gibbs one of NASCAR’s “rising young stars.”
Insulting, because even though 19 is, indeed, young, he’s already a full-fledged star, no “rising” about it. He’s here, and the Xfinity Series regulars should be glad he’s Cup-bound sooner rather than later.
The baby-faced son of Joe Gibbs Racing executive Coy Gibbs and grandson of Joe Gibbs, the Hall of Fame team owner, raced like a grizzled veteran on Saturday at Richmond Raceway. He pulled off a classic “bump-and-run” move in the last corner on the last lap to win the Toyota Care Xfinity Series 250.
Ty Gibbs won at Richmond on Saturday. It was his seventh career win in the Xfinity Series.
Jared C. TiltonGetty Images
After pole-winner Gibbs had led 114 of the 250 laps and John Hunter Nemechek had led 135, they took the white flag locked together 1-2, Nemechek leading. Gibbs bumped him a couple of times on the backstretch of the ¾-mile track, then rooted to the inside entering Turn 3. He ran Nemechek up the track in Turn 4 and drove away to win by 0.116 seconds over his JGR teammate. Sam Mayer was third, A.J. Allmendinger fourth, and Riley Herbst fifth.
The victory was Gibbs’ third in seven starts this season and the seventh in 25 dating to a partial schedule in 2021. By way of comparison—and recognizing that team resources vary greatly—two-time Xfinity champion Tyle Reddick needed 73 starts to reach seven victories. It took two-time champion Kyle Busch 61 starts to reach seven and two-time champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. needed 105 starts to get to seven victories.
Overall, Gibbs’ stats in 25 Xfinity races are simply astonishing: seven victories; 12 top-5 finishes; 14 top-10 finishes; three poles; 24 of 25 times running at the finish; 23 of 25 lead-lap finishes; average start of 10th; average finish of ninth; second in points last year; currently third this year; and the 2021 Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year. And just for kicks, he’s also won 18 poles and 17 victories and the 2021 championship in 47 ARCA Menard starts.
His victories have come on every type of track: the road courses at Daytona Beach and Watkins Glen; the short track at Richmond; the traditional NASCAR quad-ovals at Charlotte, Las Vegas, and Kansas; and the new high-speed, high-backed 1.5-miler near Atlanta. He’ll get a shot at a true flat half-miler next weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway where semi-retired fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. is expected to be in the Friday night field.
Not surprisingly, Gibbs has learned how to handle criticism when things don’t go so well. “I definitely deserve one back (from Nemechek),” Gibbs said repeatedly during his post-race presser. “We’re racing for wins, and they’re hard to come by. I had to take it. I got in there deep—we were fighting tight all day—and had to bump him out of the way, up the track. We are short-track racing and I raced him hard. We have to be greedy in these things.”
Nemechek, the son of retired popular driver Joe Nemechek, kept his emotions in check. “He and I will settle it on Monday,” he said afterward. “I don’t want to say too much and get myself in trouble, but I just got drove through. He didn’t even try to make the corner there (on the last lap).”
Then, the most popular motorsports adage of them all: “Racers never forget… that’s for sure.”
Keyword: Ty Gibbs States His Case for a Jump to NASCAR Cup Series