Ty Gibbs, Sam Mayer tangle but later make up at Martinsville.
Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer had a hot and cold sort of relationship all in the span of about 30 minutes at Martinsville Speedway Friday night.
It all started in the closing laps of the Xfinity race. Gibbs led a race high 196 of 261 laps and survived with the lead in the first attempt at an overtime finish.
The second attempt didn’t go so well for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
After a crash halted the first attempt and led to a long red flag period, Brandon Jones grabbed the lead on the second overtime restart and Gibbs did his best to get back by on the outside coming to the white flag. He was caught up in a three wide battle with Mayer, and AJ Allmendinger. All three were eligible for a $100,000 bonus being offered up by the series sponsor, which no doubt gave them a bit more motivation.
Coming out of turn 4, Mayer’s car pushed the Gibbs car up and into the outside wall. As Jones took the checkered flag followed by Landon Cassill, Allmendinger cleared Mayer and Gibbs to finish third and grab the bonus. Mayer finished fifth, Gibbs eighth.
Gibbs used his Toyota to show his displeasure to Mayer on pit road by first giving Mayer’s Chevy a hard nudge (the cars later had to be pulled apart by the crews), then jumping from the machine to confront Mayer.
Words were exchanged and soon fists were flying with Mayer, without a helmet, and Gibbs, still wearing his, having to be separated.
It wasn’t long before the two drivers were in the NASCAR hauler talking it out with officials, a chorus of boos from the crowd trailing Gibbs.
“It’s just part of it, you know. At least they’re making noise, so that’s a good thing,” Gibbs said after emerging from the meeting. “And I got to talk with all the NASCAR guys in here, and Wayne (Auton), and Steve (O’Donnell) and all of them, and I got to talk to Sam. So no, we’re all good. We’re on the same page. It’s just, boys are playing hard out there, and it led up to that moment.”
For his part, Mayer seemed ready to move on after the meeting.
“I just talked to him, he came back over, he was upset and just decided to throw a couple punches, but it’s fine by me. We talked about it,” Mayer said. “We’ll be good going forward, especially at Talladega. That’s a place where you don’t want to be enemies, so we’re gonna move on and be A-OK, keep our head down and go out try to get a win next week or next time.”
Though NASCAR has shown a propensity to adopt a “boy’s have it” mentality in recent years, after Friday night when blood was drawn (Mayer was sporting cuts above his eye; he wasn’t wearing a helmet after all) and an official was knocked to the ground during the melee and carried off on a stretcher (he was later checked and released from the infield care center), there could be penalties in the coming days, or not.
Keyword: Video: Fists Fly after NASCAR Martinsville Xfinity Race; But Drivers Make Nice Later