William Byron, Ty Gibbs penalised for Texas tangles

William Byron spinning Denny Hamlin under caution during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway has come back to bite him. On Tuesday, NASCAR announced Byron has been fined $50,000 and docked twenty-five points each in the driver and owner standings. Likewise, Ty Gibbs has received a $75,000 fine and twenty-five-point deduction in the owner’s championship for contact with Ty Dillon on pit road during the race. Both violated Sections 4.3.A and 4.4.C of the NASCAR code of conduct.

Byron spun Hamlin on lap 269 shortly after the caution came out for Martin Truex Jr. Although Byron conceded he had hit Hamlin on purpose as retaliation for how Hamlin raced him earlier, he stated he did not intend to take him out entirely. Although Hamlin was able to bounce back and finish tenth, he was critical of Byron’s conduct and NASCAR’s inaction, to which the latter’s Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller admitted had been due to the sanctioning body being too focused on the Truex caution.

“I guess we can just wreck each other under caution,” said Hamlin. “I tried to wreck him back. I don’t think we touched. I got to look. I don’t think we touched. Obviously, he sent us into the infield under caution. […] I keep hearing these guys. I’ll just add it to the list of guys when I get a chance. They’re going to get it.

“It all just works itself out. We’ll be racing each other at some point. He’ll lose a lot of spots because he’s racing me. This is hard racing, obviously. I’m fine with hard racing, but wrecking me under caution is obviously not what we were bargaining for.”

During another caution, Dillon exited his pit stall and nearly collided with Gibbs. As payback, Gibbs slammed into Dillon’s right-side door, shooting him dangerously close to a group of NASCAR officials and pit crew before Dillon was able to slow down and avoid disaster.

“I want to apologise for what happened on pit road during the race Sunday,” read a statement from Gibbs posted after the penalty was handed down. “I have to have a better understanding of the situation and my surroundings. I’m thankful no one was injured and will learn from it.”

As Gibbs is not racing for Cup points, the points penalty only applies to his #23 23XI Racing team. Conversely, Byron’s penalty drops him from seventeen points above the cut line to eight below.

The penalty is the second for Gibbs in 2022 after receiving a $15,000 fine for hitting Sam Mayer on pit road after the Xfinity Series race at Martinsville in April, which triggered a fistfight.