Ty Gibbs moves Nemechek aside for ToyotaCare 250 win

Besides being perhaps the hottest young prospect in NASCAR today, Ty Gibbs has developed a reputation for his rather aggressive driving. Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Richmond Raceway did little to dispel that notion as he pushed Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate John Hunter Nemechek aside in the final corner to win his third race of the season.

The 19-year-old Gibbs, already a six-time race winner entering Richmond, won the pole while Nemechek, a Camping World Truck Series regular, joined him on the front row. The two JGR drivers battled for the lead throughout the entire race and traded the position seven times. By the checkered flag, JR Motorsports‘ Josh Berry was the only driver besides the two to lead a lap as he had a single circuit led under caution between the first and second stages. Nemechek won Stage #1 while Gibbs claimed the second.

Gibbs dominated Stage #3 before Nemechek passed him with four laps remaining. However, Gibbs was not going to relent for his team-mate, especially a part-timer who is not eligible for Xfinity points. After taking the white flag, Gibbs caught Nemechek and gave him multiple bumps from behind in the first two corners. Approaching turns three and four, Gibbs dove to the inside and made contact with Nemechek that sent him wide. Gibbs cleared Nemechek as they exited the last turn for the victory.

“We are racing for wins and they are hard to come by, so I had to take it,” said Gibbs. “We were fighting tight all day. We just couldn’t hold the bottom. John Hunter was a little faster and we had a great race. Good for Toyota to finish 1–2. I just got in there deep and had to bump him out of the way up the track. We are short track racing.”

Nemechek was understandably less than pleased with Gibbs’ move, commenting that “he and I will settle it on Monday. I don’t want to say too much and get myself in trouble, but just got drove through. He didn’t even try to make the corner there. Racers never forget, that is for sure.”

Save for a debris caution on lap 90, the race ran completely incident free.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	250	Running
2	2	18	John Hunter Nemechek*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	250	Running
3	11	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
4	9	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
5	24	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	250	Running
6	16	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
7	12	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
8	26	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
9	8	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	250	Running
10	10	38	Parker Retzlaff	RSS Racing	Ford	250	Running
11	38	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
12	19	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
13	5	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	250	Running
14	14	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
15	36	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
16	6	5	Ryan Preece*	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Ford	250	Running
17	25	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
18	4	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
19	20	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
20	7	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	249	Running
21	3	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	249	Running
22	13	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	249	Running
23	33	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	248	Running
24	22	44	Rajah Caruth	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	248	Running
25	15	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	248	Running
26	31	26	Derek Griffith	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	247	Running
27	23	78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	247	Running
28	29	34	Kyle Weatherman	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	246	Running
29	27	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	246	Running
30	21	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	246	Running
31	32	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	246	Running
32	35	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Ford	245	Running
33	17	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	245	Running
34	37	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Ford	245	Running
35	18	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	245	Running
36	28	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	243	Running
37	34	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	139	Engine
38	30	47	Brennan Poole	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	112	Rear Gear
DNQ		52	Harrison Rhodes	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		77	Dillon Bassett	Bassett Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		45	Howie DiSavino III	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		55	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Xfinity points