Ty Gibbs snuck into the Championship Four with a controversial spinout of his own teammate and on Saturday he used the momentum to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix.
Gibbs took the lead with 21 laps left at Phoenix Raceway and held off his rival Noah Gragson for the victory.
"I know what I did last week was unacceptable, and I apologize once again," Gibbs said after winning the race, via NASCAR.com. "It was unacceptable because we could have had two shots to win this deal, and it was stupid from an organization standpoint. I will sit here and tell you I’m sorry as much as I can, but it is not going to fix it. I’ve got to fix my actions.
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"I feel like today I had a good race. We made some good moves. Me and the 7 (Justin Allgaier) were racing really hard. Hopefully we put on a good show for you fans. Thank you for all of what you guys do."
Gibbs spun out Brandon Jones on the final lap in Martinsville last week. The move knocked out a teammate in Joe Gibbs Racing who may have been in the Championship Four anyway. Instead, Gibbs was competing against three other JR Motorsports drivers.
Gragson was one of Gibbs’ biggest detractors and didn’t mince words when talking about him leading up the race. He couldn’t keep up with him on Saturday.
"I felt like if I was any closer, I would have got him, but I wasn’t," he said.
Gragson and Gibbs shook hands after the race.
Justin Alllgaier had momentum in the race. He tried to go high at one point but was passed by Gibbs. Allgaier finished in third place.
"Tonight was a difficult, but Ty had the best car," he said. "They executed all night, made good adjustments and were good on pit road.... Probably the hardest part for me is none of us from JR Motorsports won."
Justin Berry finished 13th in the race and ultimately fourth in the playoffs.
"I could basically say I made a mistake, got too high and had a moment, but I had every intention of running up there and creating some momentum on the backstretch," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
