Ty Gibbs takes heat before championship race

Ty Gibbs is still taking heat from his Xfinity series competitors following his Martinsville win last weekend. On the final lap of the race, Gibbs spun his teammate Brandon Jones to take home the race win. Gibbs was already locked into the championship race and the move cost Brandon Jones a spot in the Championship 4. Justin Allgaier from JR Motorsports transferred in as a result, meaning three of the four championship-contending cars heading into Phoenix will be from JR Motorsports.

Image Credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The move has drawn criticism all week from both competitors and analysts. In the media session for the Championship 4 drivers, Ty Gibbs drew very harsh criticism from one of his championship competitors, Noah Gragson. "I don't like him," Noah Gragson told reporters, "It’s just speaking what everybody doesn’t want to say, but they feel it."Gragson also entered the headlines after his post-race comments at Martinsville when he referred to Joe Gibbs Racing as "Ty Gibbs Racing".

NASCAR on NBC analyst and former NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Petty also made very strong comments about Ty Gibbs earlier this week. "It was a punk move. Sorry it was a punk move spinning his teammate who he had moved..twice before his teammate had moved him". Team owner Joe Gibbs, Ty Gibb's grandfather, told Fox Sports there would be "repercussions" for how Ty Gibbs handled the situation.

The question on the minds of many people is whether Brandon Jones might retaliate in any way during the Phoenix finale. Jones is already set to leave Joe Gibbs racing for JR Motorsports in the 2023 season and is bringing his primary sponsor Menards with him. Jones has stayed relatively silent about the situation compared to many of his competitors. “If that’s the course of action he wants to take, I can’t control that,” Gibbs told reporters about the possibility of Jones retaliating during the final race. The two have said they had a conversation about the incident conversation the week, but so far are not talking about what was said.

Image Credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Ty Gibb's tone toward the issue took a major change during media day. After the race, Gibbs embraced the boo's he received from the fans in Martinsville. Gibbs gestured to the fans telling them to bring on the boos. From his recent statements, however, Ty Gibbs no longer seems content with this reputation. "If I could redo it … I would," said Gibbs, referring to wrecking Jones for the win. "We could have had two JGR cars in the Championship Four and I took that out. I took 50% of Toyota’s championship and JGR’s championship away... so I have to move forward and do the best to fix these things." Whether this remorse comes from his conversation with Brandon Jones, a talk with people at Joe Gibbs Racing, or from reflecting on the situation, it could still come too late to save his reputation amongst his competitors.

"I haven’t brought this up yet. He runs us into the fence," Noah Gragson added to his comment about Gibbs, "He doesn’t care. He lives in Fantasyland." While none came close to the bluntness of Gragson, the feelings are reportedly shared through much of the Xfinity garage, even admitted by Gibbs. The championship race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series will be Saturday at 6 pm (est) on the USA network.