So, this Ty Gibbs kid might be kinda good.
Obviously, we already knew that, as the 18-year old had already scored two NASCAR Xfinity Series wins this season heading into Saturday’s NXS Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey 200 at Watkins Glen international.
But if there were any doubters of Gibbs’ talent, he flat-out beat two of the best in the Series at road courses — AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric — to score his third victory in 10 starts in 2021.
“I had probably the most fun racing with AJ and [Allgaier] and [Cindric],” Gibbs said after climbing from his car. “You know, those guys are very experienced veterans in this racing series. To be able to race them and beat them, means a lot and I learned a lot from them too. I just can’t thank Monster Energy, TRD, my Toyota Racing Supra was super fast today. This is just a dream come true.”
Gibbs led a race-high 43 laps in the 82-lap race, and he took the lead for good from Allmendinger on lap 80. After winning, Gibbs went and burnt his tires to the ground to the delight of the crowd at The Glen.
For Allmendinger, there wasn’t much he could do differently to win, as it was just a case of his car being second-best on the day.
“That’s a fast car,” Allmendinger said of Gibbs’ No. 54 car. “Like what’s it got like 10 wins? And Ty was doing a great job, so, yeah, we just needed a little bit. We weren’t very good a couple of years ago, so we went with a completely different set up. It was pretty good, the HyperIce Chevy was pretty solid. Second best race car unfortunately.”
Austin Cindric finished behind Gibbs and Allmendinger in third.
Justin Allgaier was able to get his car to the finish despite thinking he had brake issues late, and he finished an impressive fourth. Harrison Burton came home fifth.
Brandon Jones, Noah Gragson, Jeb Burton, Justin Haley and Sam Mayer rounded out the top-10 finishers on the day.
