Ty Gibbs scores fourth career Xfinity win, ARCA title at Kansas

It was an eventful Saturday for Ty Gibbs. He led the final ten laps of the NASCAR Xfinity Series‘ Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway to win for the fourth time in the series, before taking the green flag in the evening’s ARCA Menards Series event to win the championship.

Daniel Hemric started on the pole and led the first ten laps before Austin Cindric took the spot. He led through the competition caution and a lap 28 wreck involving Jade Buford and Dylan Lupton. A.J. Allmendinger took the stage win ahead of Hemric, Cindric, Gibbs, Justin Allgaier, Myatt Snider, Noah Gragson, Brandon Jones, Justin Haley, and Michael Annett.

The second stage ran completely green. Cindric dominated the segment to win ahead of Gibbs, Hemric, Gragson, Snider, Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Allgaier, Sam Mayer, and Haley.

Cindric continued to lead to kick off the final stage, only briefly surrendering to Snider after a wreck on lap 96 in which Hemric spun into Gragson. Joe Graf Jr.‘s single-car spin on lap 103 brought out another caution, as did Mason Massey on lap 135. Two more yellow flags waved for debris from Graf’s car and Jones spinning.

At the front, Cindric and Gibbs sparred for the lead. On lap 178, Burton got loose while running three-wide with Mayer and Gragson, causing him to be accidentally turned by the former being coming up into the latter and slamming into the wall.

Although Cindric still led on the restart, Gibbs passed him on lap 190 and led the rest of the way. It is his fourth win in just his seventeen career Xfinity start, while the Joe Gibbs Racing #54 has now won back-to-back races with non-Xfinity drivers. As a consequence of the latter, no playoff driver is locked into the Championship Round with just one race remaining.

“We had to be really patient with the way the track was and we were on the top so a lot of dirty air,” said Gibbs. “We had to make sure that we could just get (Cindric) a little loose with air and then side draft him and pull away. I felt like that was the best way to pass him. It was hard  because he could run the bottom and then just be completely stalled out. This is just awesome.”

Later in the day, he finished second in the ARCA season finale behind Nick Sanchez, though all he needed to clinch the championship was to start the race as Corey Heim was too far back in points. Gibbs is expected to move to a full-time Xfinity slate in 2022, making him the first driver to parlay an ARCA title into a full Xfinity ride since Allgaier in 2009 (most ARCA champs usually move up to the Camping World Truck Series).

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	10	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
2	2	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	200	Running
3	5	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	6	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	14	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
6	16	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
7	8	1	Michael Annett	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	12	8	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	3	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
10	15	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
11	9	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
12	11	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
13	13	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
14	23	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
15	1	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
16	22	15	Bayley Currey*	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
17	19	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
18	39	17	Garrett Smithley	SS-Green Light Racing	Toyota	200	Running
19	38	4	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
20	27	31	Jordan Anderson*	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
21	25	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
22	20	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
23	17	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
24	34	23	Patrick Emerling	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
25	31	99	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
26	18	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
27	28	26	Dylan Lupton	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	198	Running
28	24	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
29	30	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
30	29	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
31	32	90	Spencer Boyd*	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running
32	36	61	Loris Hezemans	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	192	Running
33	21	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	191	Running
34	7	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	178	Accident
35	4	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	178	Accident
36	33	66	David Starr	MBM Motorsports	Ford	152	Running
37	26	5	Mason Massey	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	133	Accident
38	35	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	28	Accident
39	40	74	Gray Gaulding	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	13	Engine
40	37	52	Joey Gase	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet	2	Electrical

Bold – Currently in playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Xfinity points