If you’re just tuning in, this Ty Gibbs kid seems to be pretty good at this winning thing. The 19-year old grandson of Joe Gibbs tore it up in the ARCA Series ranks, and now he has taken his domination to the NASCAR Xfinity Series ranks as he scored his second win of the 2022 season Saturday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Going into the final overtime restart of the evening, Gibbs was lined up on the outside line behind his arch nemesis Ryan Sieg (the two had issues at Las Vegas). After pushing Sieg to what looked like a win, Gibbs made an impressive move as he knifed around Sieg on the final lap of the race.
Gibbs explained that the winning move didn’t actually play out the way he thought it would, but it still ended up working.
“What I processed was if I could get [Sieg] way out there and I could just slip underneath him and catch a run from [Hill] and boost by him, it would be my best shot. But the way it played out, [Hill] got loose underneath in 3 and 4 and the [Allmendinger] came with a run from on back. [Sieg] was just a little light, which is where I was able to squeeze between he and [Hill],” Gibbs explained.
While the move was incredible, Gibbs took a chance going for the win as his spotter never told him he was clear. The young racer says those kind of decisions from behind the wheel are what make him so successful.
“I feel like you just have to be aware of those moments,” Gibbs said. “Clearing myself there comes down to natural instincts. I didn’t hear Tony say clear, I think just looking at that mirror and making those split second decisions wins the races.”
As Sieg attempted to negate his fade through the field, Gibbs pulled away to score his second win of the year and his sixth win in 23-career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts.
Here is video of the overtime finish from the FS1 broadcast:
Retweet to congratulate Ty Gibbs on his NASCAR Xfinity Series WIN in overtime at Atlanta Motor Speedway!@TyGibbs_ | @JoeGibbsRacing pic.twitter.com/OnpcAnszoV
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 20, 2022
Austin Hill, who won the season-opening NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona, finished runner-up, while AJ Allmendinger, Riley Herbst and Landon Cassill finished third through fifth.
Mason Massey scored his career-best finish as he came home in sixth, Brandon Jones was seventh and Kyle Weatherman joined Massey — his DGM Racing teammate — inside the top-10 with a solid eighth-place effort.
Sheldon Creed, Hill’s Richard Childress Racing teammate finished the race in ninth. Sieg, who looked to be heading to his first-career win, barely snuck out of Saturday’s race with a top-10 in 10th.
Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway, seemed somewhat tame through the race’s first two Stages, which were won by Josh Berry and AJ Allmendinger, but things got bonkers in the final Stage.
On lap 106, the first of what would be five multi-car crashes in the final Stage of the race was sparked when Jade Buford was tapped by Jeb Burton. The contact sent Buford, who had run well to that point, spinning and Buford was clocked by Jeremy Clements, who had nowhere to go.
The big-one, which many people expected to happen as the new style of racing at Atlanta mimics the pack drafting we see at Daytona and Talladega, occurred on lap 153. Trevor Bayne made a move to attempt to stay in the high lane in front of AJ Allmendinger, but he wasn’t quite clear. Bayne made contact which sent him up the track. Bayne came back down the track and the crash was on.
By the end of the tire squealing, 14 cars were ensnarled in the crash.
