The long wait is finally over for 23-year-old Ty Gibbs, as he finally snatched his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was a bittersweet moment for the budding NASCAR star, as he wished he was able to share in the glory of the win with his late father, Coy.
“Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s awesome to be with great people. To be in this position is great. I’d love for my father to have seen this,” Gibbs explained. “I knew he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well.”
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While Gibbs didn’t have the dominant car for the majority of the day, he was able to gain the lead through a late-race strategy call. When the chips were on the table, the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was able to hold off hard-charging Ryan Blaney for the victory in an overtime finish.
With three laps left in regulation, Gibbs looked like a safe bet to collect his first win as Blaney and Kyle Larson had lost ground in a fierce battle for the runner-up spot behind him. However, Kyle Busch would make contact with Riley Herbst, which would send Herbst spinning to bring out the caution, which would send the race into overtime.
On 95 lap older tires than Blaney, Gibbs was able to do exactly what he needed, and crossed the finish line ahead of Blaney by just 0.055 seconds.
Gibbs said while he was happy to finally claim his first career win in his 131st attempt, that he wasn’t even concerned with whether he was going to win in the closing laps, as he simply enjoyed the awesome on-track battles with Blaney.
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“Honestly, I didn’t really know or care if I was going to win or not,” Gibbs quipped. “I thought the race was awesome. I thought we all put on the racing was great. Feel like it’s been us the whole year. I really appreciate always racing Ryan Blaney and Kyle too. Those guys always run me real well. We all run together and hard.”
Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion, still remains winless at Bristol Motor Speedway, and after Sunday’s defeat Blaney was as upset as ever, but he was happy to see Gibbs pull through.
“Gosh, I really wanted to win at Bristol here. I came close,” Blaney anguished. “But congrats to Ty. He’s been really close. Nothing is more special than your first Cup win. It’s pretty cool to win at this place. Yeah, move on. Fun day. Just wish we could have beat him.”
Larson, who swept the wins in Stages 1 and 2, would hang on to finish third, and he would be followed to the finish line by Tyler Reddick, the series points leader, and Chase Briscoe, who has rebounded to within one point of being inside of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase cutline.
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Todd Gilliland, Joey Logano, Ryan Preece, Denny Hamlin, and Carson Hocevar rounded out the top-10 finishers in the Food City 500.
With his fourth-place run, Reddick was able to maintain his series points lead, which sits at 62 points over Blaney following Sunday’s race at Bristol. Denny Hamlin is third, 86 points back, while Gibbs is now up to fourth, and is 105 points behind Reddick.
Shane van Gisbergen, who finished a disappointing 34th, sits 16th in the Chase Grid, and has just a one-point advantage over Briscoe, who is the first driver on the outside looking in of the Chase Grid with 18 races remaining until the Chase begins.
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, April 19. That race will be televised on FOX, and coverage is set to begin at 2:00 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN), and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the race in Kansas.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Ty Gibbs Captures 1st Career NASCAR Cup Win In Overtime At Bristol.
