Ty Gibbs Wins Atlanta Xfinity Race on Last Lap Pass in Double Overtime

Nigel Kinrade Photo

HAMPTON, GA – RIS – Young phenom Ty Gibbs led only one lap, but it was the important one to lead-the last lap.  Gibbs passed Ryan Sieg on the last lap of double overtime to win Saturday night’s Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  Georgia native Austin Hill finished second and was followed by AJ Allmendinger, Riley Herbst and Landon Cassell. Mason Massey finished a career-best sixth. His previous best in 26 previous Xfinity races was 17th. Brandon Jones was seventh. Kyle Weatherman tied his career-best finish of eighth.

In a race set on a track that had never been raced on (except for the Camping World Truck Series that raced on it earlier today), trouble was expected and trouble it was.  The 172-lap race (extended nine laps by overtime) featured a track-record 10 cautions, including a 12-car incident.  Sort of a little big one.  That said, the result was the same.

Heading into the second two-lap overtime, Gibbs lined up fourth on the restart behind leader Ryan Sieg in the outside lane with Austin Hill and Riley Herbst lined up together on the bottom lane.

Gibbs pushed Sieg out front of the field, then A.J. Allmendinger gave Gibbs a shove from behind that allowed him to dive to the inside of Sieg entering Turn 1 on the final lap and cleared for the lead. Gibbs held off Hill by 0.178 seconds to win the race – his second consecutive and second of the 2022 season. The only lap Gibbs, 19, led in the race was the last one.

“If there’s a gap, you’ve got to take it,” Gibbs said. “There almost wasn’t a gap but there was, so I sent it. And we won it.  We came back from 29th and trouble on pit road. The win is awesome, still a lot of things I have to fix and work on, but let’s go, heck yeah!”

Josh Berry won the first stage.  Berry got inside of Noah Gragson off Turn 4 on the final lap and earned the Stage 1 victory by 0.300 seconds.  Justin Allgaier was third, Sam Mayer fourth and Trevor  Bayne rounded out the top-five.  Gragson started on the pole and led every lap until NASCAR threw a competition caution on Lap 22.

A.J. Allmendinger held off Hemric to take the Stage 2 win. Buford was third, Tommy Joe Martins was fourth and Sage Karam rounded out the top-five.

Gibbs has now won two Xfinity races at age 19, and six in his short career. 

Unofficial Results: 31st Annual Nalley Cars 250, March 19, 2022, Atlanta Motor Speedway

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps , St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status

1) 4, Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, 172, , , 1, 1, 5, 40, Running

2) 14, Austin Hill #, No. 21 Bennett Transporation and Logistics Chevrolet, 172, 6, 8, 1, 27, , 43, Running

3) 7, AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Action Industries Chevrolet, 172, , 1, 1, 41, 1, 44, Running

4) 24, Riley Herbst, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford, 172, , , , , , 33, Running

5) 10, Landon Cassill, No. 10 Voyager: Crypto for All Chevrolet, 172, , 10, , , , 33, Running

6) 26, Mason Massey, No. 91 Anderson Power Services Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 31, Running

7) 3, Brandon Jones, No. 19 Menards/Pentair Toyota, 172, 9, , 1, 1, , 32, Running

8) 28, Kyle Weatherman, No. 92 LS Tractor Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 29, Running

9) 13, Sheldon Creed #, No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet, 172, , 6, 1, 15, , 33, Running

10) 9, Ryan Sieg, No. 39 CMRoofing.com/A-Game Ford, 172, , , 1, 6, , 27, Running

11) 21, JJ Yeley, No. 66 Work Pro Tools Ford, 172, , , , , , 26, Running

12) 32, Ryan Vargas, No. 6 KSDT CPA Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 25, Running

13) 19, Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 26 ForeverLawn Toyota, 172, , , , , , 24, Running

14) 16, Brett Moffitt, No. 02 Hometown Lenders Chevrolet, 172, 10, , , , , 24, Running

15) 12, Jeb Burton, No. 27 Int'l Championship Boxing Chevrolet, 172, 7, 9, , , , 28, Running

16) 27, Anthony Alfredo, No. 23 Digital Ally Companies Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 21, Running

17) 35, Shane Lee, No. 35 Kitty Kat Coin Toyota, 172, , , , , , 20, Running

18) 11, Brandon Brown, No. 68 Zero FG Energy Drink Chevrolet, 172, 8, 7, , , , 26, Running

19) 17, Alex Labbe, No. 36 Studio Fore/Pork Missile Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 18, Running

20) 37, Tommy Joe Martins, No. 45 AP Regimen Legacy Series Chevrolet, 172, , 4, , , , 24, Running

21) 15, Sam Mayer, No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet, 172, 4, , , , , 23, Running

22) 36, Josh Williams, No. 78 COOLRAY Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 15, Running

23) 23, Joe Graf Jr., No. 07 GTECHNIQ Ford, 172, , , , , , 14, Running

24) 31, Kyle Sieg #, No. 28 A-Game Ford, 172, , , , , , 13, Running

25) 25, Stefan Parsons, No. 99 SOKAL Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 12, Running

26) 1, Noah Gragson, No. 9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/BRCC Chevrolet, 172, 2, , 2, 38, , 20, Running

27) 38, Jesse Iwuji #, No. 34 Equity Prime Mortgage Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 10, Running

28) 5, Trevor Bayne, No. 18 Devotion Nutrition Toyota, 172, 5, , 2, 38, , 15, Running

29) 20, Bayley Currey, No. 4 KSDT CPA Chevrolet, 172, , , , , , 8, Running

30) 22, Myatt Snider, No. 31 TaxSlayer Chevrolet, 171, , , 1, 2, , 7, Running

31) 33, Matt Mills, No. 5 J.F. Electric Chevrolet, 165, , , , , , 6, Accident

32) 29, Sage Karam, No. 44 The Driveway Company Chevrolet, 154, , 5, , , , 11, Accident

33) 2, Josh Berry, No. 8 Harrison's USA Chevrolet, 153, 1, , 1, 3, 1, 14, Accident

34) 6, Justin Allgaier, No. 7 Axalta Nalley Clicklane Chevrolet, 152, 3, , , , , 11, Accident

35) 8, Daniel Hemric, No. 11 AG1 - Athletic Greens Chevrolet, 113, , 2, , , , 11, Accident

36) 34, Loris Hezemans(i), No. 38 Hezeberg Systems Toyota, 112, , , , , , 0, Accident

37) 18, Jeremy Clements, No. 51 Fly and Form Structures Chevrolet, 106, , , , , , 1, Accident

38) 30, Jade Buford, No. 48 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet, 105, , 3, , , , 9, Accident

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Race Length: 172 Laps, 264.88 Miles

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 36 Mins, 39 Secs

Average Speed: 101.454 MPH

Margin of Victory: 0.178 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 8, 9, 7, 1, 18, 21, 27, 68, 19, 02

Stage 2 Top 10: 16, 11, 48, 45, 44, 2, 68, 21, 27, 10

Comments: Ty Gibbs won the FR8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his sixth career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory.

Prior to the start, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field for the reason indicated: No. 5, 26, 38. 39 and 99 (unapproved adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: (5) 08 David Starr, 47 Brennan Poole, 13 Chad Finchum, 77 Dillon Bassett, 52 Harrison Rhodes.

Cautions: 10 for 56 laps;

Laps: 22-26 (Competition Caution [None]);

42-47 (Stage 1 Conclusion [None]);

82-88 (Stage 2 Conclusion [4]);

107-112 (No. 23, 27, 48 and 51 Incident on the Backstretch [98]);

114-122 (No. 07 and 11 Incident in Turn 4 [26]);

130-133 (No. 1 Spin in Turn 2 [None]);

140-143 (No. 2, 8 and 68 Incident in Turn 2 [07]);

154-160 (No. 1, 7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 27, 36, 44, 45, 54 and 99 Incident on the Frontstretch [68]);

162-165 (No. 31 and 98 Incident in Turn 1 [1]);

167-170 (No. 5, 45 and 99 Incident in Turn 1 [Red Flag: 12:03] [1]).

Lead Changes: 11 among 10 drivers;

N. Gragson 1-25;

B. Jones 26;

N. Gragson 27-39;

J. Berry 40-42;

A. Allmendinger 43-83;

S. Creed # 84-98;

T. Bayne 99-100;

M. Snider 101-102;

T. Bayne 103-138;

A. Hill # 139-165;

R. Sieg 166-171;

T. Gibbs 172.

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2022, Issue 3, Posted 9:33 PM, 03.19.2022