NASCAR News: Gibbs holds off Blaney and Larson for first Cup win at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Ty Gibbs delivered a masterclass in strategy and nerve to score his first NASCAR Cup Series victory, holding off Ryan Blaney by a razor-thin 0.055 seconds in overtime to win the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver in the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota stayed out on older tires during a caution with 24 laps to go, vaulting from mid-pack into the lead as most of the field pitted for fresh rubber. Gibbs then led the final 25 laps of the 505-lap event — including a green-white-checkered overtime restart — expertly fending off challenges to earn the win in his 131st career Cup start.

Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney led 190 laps in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford and made the conventional call to take four fresh tires under that late caution. He mounted a furious charge in the closing stages but came up just short at the line.

Kyle Larson was the most dominant car for much of the afternoon, pacing the field for a race-high 284 laps in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, but had to settle for third. Tyler Reddick finished fourth and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top five.

Standout Runs and Tough Breaks

Todd Gilliland turned in one of the drives of the day, charging from 35th on the grid all the way to sixth in the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford.

Alex Bowman’s return to Cup competition after a four-race absence due to vertigo ended in disappointment. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was collected in a four-car crash triggered by Shane van Gisbergen’s spin, spent extended time behind the wall for repairs, and finished last in the 37-car field.

Christopher Bell, one of the pre-race favorites after winning at Bristol last fall, had a day to forget and finished 27th. The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was penalized for speeding on pit road during the Stage 1 break, then scraped the outside wall on Lap 144 and spun to bring out the third caution. Further contact on Lap 270 slowed him even more.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway next Sunday, April 19, for the next round of the season.

Quotes

Ty Gibbs

Frontstretch interview with Ty Gibbs.

You’ve been knocking on the door of this first career Cup Series victory for a while now. You get to say you’re a winner today in the Cup Series. Describe the emotion.

TY GIBBS: 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. I knew he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well.

Yeah, it was great day for us. My boys didn’t give up. Pit crew is just amazing. This is our family. It’s been great. So it’s just such great deal.

Very honored to be in this situation. Thank you for Monster Energy. Been with me my whole career. Mitch Covington, Dave Gowland, Elton, everybody a part of it. They’ve been with me since I was a kid. I really appreciate this.

Bring me back through the end of the race, holding off Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson. What did it take to have the composure to bring this thing home?

TY GIBBS: Honestly, I didn’t really know or care if I was going to win or not. 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.

Hopefully we put a great show on for the fans. Thank you for Team 54, everybody that’s a part of this whole deal. What a great day.

Joe Gibbs

Coach, what is this like?

JOE GIBBS: Is one of my best experiences. Honestly when Denny won, honoring J.D.’s life, was such a huge deal.

When I think about Coy, he brought Ty up the entire time. I know he’s probably watching. So I just want to thank so many people. It starts with God. He’s blessed us and our family. Just really, really can’t say enough.

TY GIBBS: This is the man right here. I’ve never seen somebody work so hard in my life. Him and my mom, I come to the shop at 6 a.m. or 7 p.m., there’s nobody there, but they are always there. They work their asses off.

He’s a great role model. I wouldn’t be here unless it was for him.

JOE GIBBS: Just appreciate everything so much (laughter). I don’t know if I’m still on here or not.

Hey, I want to thank Tyler, Cole Pearn, Grayson, all of our guys on the team. They did so much for this. Everybody back at Joe Gibbs Racing. Thank all so much for us being able to enjoy this. It’s one of the great blessings I’ve had in life.

Ryan Blaney

Ryan Blaney, some great battling at the end of the race right there. You said you got a little loose. Anything that last green-white-checkered you could have done different?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I mean, great battle for sure. Good battle all day. I fought a lot of different cars.

Yeah, I got free into three, two or three laps before the last yellow. I kind of was side by side with Ty. I just slipped getting in there. Real easy to slip off the bottom. That kind of cost me some time.

Yeah, I don’t know. Gave it my best shot the last restart. Got a good restart. Was close, but just couldn’t get it done.

Proud of the effort by all the 12 folks, gave me a real fast car, fast car in qualifying. Got it better through the race honestly. Halfway through the race I thought we got to be the best car, which is really good.

Thanks Discount Tire, Ford, Ford Racing, Menards, Advance Auto Parts, BODYARMOR, Wabash, everybody who puts a lot into our program.

Gosh, I really wanted to win at Bristol here. I came close. 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.

Kyle Larson

What more did you need in the end to be able to contend for the win here?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I mean, Blaney had by far the best car. His pit crew just kept putting him behind all day, which really allowed us to lead a lot of laps, get those stage wins. Yeah, so that was good.

Happy about all of that.

Just knew it was going to be difficult to hold him off. Seemed like every restart he could just plow right through the field and get to second. Was just really fast.

Yeah, then Ty got strong there the last run, too. That was probably my worst run, I think. We were making some adjustments at that point. I just got a little bit out of the track. Yeah, they were just better than me.

Then the strategy got kind of crazy there at the end. We took the third-place car and finished third. Happy with the points earned today. Look forward to next week.

Food City 500 Race Results