Ty Gibbs superb in Sin City shootout after Sieg squabble and snowy stoppage

Ty Gibbs‘ prodigious performance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series continued Saturday when he dominated the final restart to win the Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but it came after a tumultuous day for the 19-year-old phenom. Much of his race day was dominated by a rivalry with Ryan Sieg after the two collided twice and a forty-minute red flag for, unexpectedly, snow in the Nevada desert.

Gibbs started his race in eleventh, though he and fifteen other drivers were ordered to the rear for switching to a backup car following damage to their primaries the previous week at Fontana; teams were supposed to use the same car for both races, though crashes and other incidents resulted in so many drivers at the back that it was basically a field inversion. As pole winner A.J. Allmendinger and eventual stage winner Noah Gragson dominated the segment, Gibbs’ climb through the field saw him feud with Sieg after contact sent the latter into the wall just three laps in.

Although the incident was attributed to Gibbs being over-aggressive rather than malice, Sieg was livid over the radio and vowed to return the favour. However, he had to wait until the snow cleared up when it forced a red flag after twenty laps. During the wait, Sieg called out Gibbs for his driving style, especially as he has “the best car in the garage.” Gibbs took responsibility during his red flag interview with FOX Sports and further apologised in his post-race interview, saying it “wasn’t my best decision and I’m sorry to their whole group. Ryan’s family, they worked so hard, so I want to apologise to them.”

Despite Gibbs’ apology, Sieg was eager to exact revenge and tried to execute his plan on lap 30, though it completely backfired instead. As Gibbs attempted to pass him in turn four, Sieg moved up to squeeze him into the wall. However, this resulted in Sieg’s decklid coming off and him spinning into the outside wall, with Brett Moffitt and Sheldon Creed as innocent victims when they tried to thread the needle between Sieg and the barrier.

The opening stage finally ended with a JR Motorsports podium sweep as Gragson led Sam Mayer and Josh Berry. Gibbs, Ryan Truex, Allmendinger, Austin Hill, Brandon Jones, Daniel Hemric, and John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top ten.

Stage #2 saw a pair of cautions for Jesse Iwuji‘s spin and Joe Graf Jr. turning Kyle Weatherman. Gibbs’ race finally settled down during the segment and he finished behind Gragson for second in the stage. Mayer, Hill, Hemric, Jones, Berry, Nemechek, Truex, and Justin Allgaier followed.

Graf’s dubiously eventful day continued in the final stage when he clipped Weatherman’s DGM Racing team-mate Matt Mills and shot him into the wall. While Graf finished twenty-ninth, he failed post-race inspection for having three missing or loose lug nuts, making him the second disqualification of the weekend after Zane Smith had lug nut violations of his own in the previous night’s Camping World Truck Series event. Iwuji also had a difficult showing as the rookie spun on lap 173 into Ryan Vargas and Stefan Parsons.

The final fifteen laps saw a pair of cautions beginning with Mayer’s spin. After just one lap of racing on the ensuing restart, Truex shot up into Hill exiting turn four with Nemechek and Herbst sliding through pit road. As the finish was too far away to necessitate overtime, the last green flag came with five laps remaining.

A strong push from Allgaier enabled Gibbs to clear Allgaier’s JRM team-mate Gragson. Another incident involving Landon Cassill and C.J. McLaughlin as they took the white flag ended the race under caution, sealing the victory for Gibbs.

Despite being only nineteen years old, Gibbs has five Xfinity wins to his name in twenty career starts.

“I want to say thank you to Justin Allgaier for my push[,]” said Gibbs. “That helped me a lot. I had a fun time racing with the JR (Motorsports) cars. Hopefully, we can keep it going and go out and win some more races.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	11	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
2	4	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
3	6	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	2	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	16	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
6	5	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
7	8	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	13	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	1	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
10	21	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
11	12	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
12	10	26	John Hunter Nemechek*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	200	Running
13	35	44	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
14	3	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
15	17	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
16	24	38	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	199	Running
17	25	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
18	27	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
19	38	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
20	30	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Ford	198	Running
21	34	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
22	36	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	198	Running
23	23	45	Kaz Grala*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
24	31	28	C.J. McLaughlin	DGM Racing	Ford	198	Running
25	9	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
26	26	92	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running
27	32	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	195	Running
28	14	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	195	Running
29	18	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	193	Running
30	7	18	Ryan Truex	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	190	Accident
31	15	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	188	Accident
32	28	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	168	Accident
33	29	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	168	Accident
34	37	34	Jesse Iwuji	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	156	Accident
35	19	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	83	Accident
36	20	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	25	Accident
37	33	47	Brennan Poole	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	3	Engine
38	22	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	194	Running (DSQ)
DNQ		08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
DNQ		13	Stan Mullis	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
DNQ		78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet

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