BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — Outdueling two NASCAR Cup Series champions for the first victory of his career, Ty Gibbs made an emphatic and emotional breakthrough Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The win came in the 131st Cup start for the grandson of NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner and former Super Bowl-winning coach Joe Gibbs.
Ty Gibbs also is the son of the late Coy Gibbs, who also helped run his father's team before unexpectedly dying in his sleep on Nov. 6, 2022 – the day after his son won the championship in NASCAR's second-highest division.
Ty Gibbs, 23, moved to the Cup series the next year and had multiple near-misses (runner-up finishes at Darlington in 2024 and Chicago last year) before reaching victory lane in his fourth season.
"This is one of my best experiences" Joe Gibbs said. "When I think about Coy, he brought Ty up the entire time. I know he's probably watching."
Ty Gibbs interrupted his grandfather's postrace interview in the pits with a hug.
"This is the man right here," said Ty, whose mother, Heather, also is a co-owner of JGR. "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., and there's nobody there, but they are always there. They work their (butts) off. He's a great role model. I wouldn't be here unless it was for him."
Gibbs led the final 25 laps at Bristol, inheriting first place under caution on a strategy gamble by staying on track in his No. 54 Toyota while Ryan Blaney pitted from the lead along with Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 284 of 505 laps.
Blaney and Larson both restarted outside the top five, and Gibbs was cruising toward a win before the yellow flew again on the 498th lap to set up the first overtime restart at Bristol in 11 years.
Despite Blaney and Larson having tires that were nearly 100 laps fresher, Gibbs fended off the star drivers on a two-lap shootout to the checkered flag.
"Honestly, I didn't really know or care if I was going to win or not," Gibbs said. "I thought the race was awesome. I really appreciate always racing Ryan Blaney and Kyle, too. Those guys always run me really well."
Blaney, the 2023 Cup champion who started from the pole position, finished second after leading 190 laps in the No. 12 Ford.
"Yeah, great battle for sure," he said. "I fought a lot of different cars. Gave it my best shot on the last restart. Was close but just couldn't get it done."
Larson, the defending Cup Series champion who won the first two stages, finished third and remained winless in the past 32 races with his No. 5 Chevrolet.
The Toyotas of Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top five.
"Super happy for Ty," Briscoe said of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. "It's been a long time coming. To do it the way he did it, on old tires, to beat the two guys that dominated all day long, that was impressive. Just super happy for him and the whole family."
Gibbs became the sixth NASCAR driver to earn his first Cup victory at Bristol, joining Dale Earnhardt (1979), Rusty Wallace (1986), Ernie Irvan (1990), Elliott Sadler (2001) and Kurt Busch (2002).
"It's awesome to be with great people," the younger Gibbs said. "To be in this position is great. I'd love for my father to have seen this. I know he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well. Yeah, it was a great day for us. This is our family, so it's just such a great deal."
Hendrick woes
While Larson excelled at the front, two of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates were struggling mightily.
William Byron started from the rear because of unapproved adjustments to his No. 24 Chevrolet, which had steering problems in practice and qualifying Saturday. Byron, who has led at every active track but Bristol, was off the pace from the start and finished five laps down.
Returning from missing four races because of vertigo, Alex Bowman started 27th and finished last after being involved in a multicar crash started by Shane van Gisbergen.
"I was fine, just a frustrating day," Bowman said. "Thought we were OK in practice and then obviously qualified bad and then just really struggled with the handling today. Bummer. Hate that we didn't get a chance to work on it and make it better and finish the race, but it's kind of outside our control. When you run that bad, stuff can happen, and it happened to us."
Up next
The NASCAR Cup Series will race April 19 at Kansas Speedway, the first of three consecutive tracks 1.5 miles and longer. Hendrick Motorsports has won three of the past four races at Kansas with Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott winning last year at the oval in Kansas City, Kansas.
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