It wasn’t even a stage break when tempers boiled over at lap 62 at Sonoma Sunday—but the yellow flag flew, and suddenly pit road turned into a low-budget sequel to Days of Thunder.
As Ty Gibbs swung into his pit box with all the grace of a bowling ball in a China shop, he sliced right through the No. 6 stall belonging to Brad Keselowski. Unfortunately for RFK crewman Telvin McClurkin, that bowling ball had fenders. Gibbs clipped one of the two tires in McClurkin’s hands, twisting his wrist and making a mess of the whole stop for Keselowski.
The pit crew didn’t take kindly to that. Once the cars were gone and the adrenaline was still very much not, a few members from both teams got into the sort of shoving match you’d expect to see in the checkout line at Costco during a holiday tire sale. NASCAR officials swooped in before anyone could lose a headset or a job.
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McClurkin, clearly unimpressed with being used as a pylon, was ready to march down to the No. 54 pit box for a word—or several.
“When the No. 54 car came in, I was holding that tire, and Ty Gibbs’ car hit my hands and twisted my wrist,” he told a TNT pit reporter. “My wrist and my hands are okay, I’m going to continue, I’m fine.” Which is a bit like saying “It’s just a flesh wound.”
Not missing an opportunity for a little crowdsourced justice, RFK dropped their pit stall cam footage online and invited fans to decide for themselves: did Ty aim, or was it just unfortunate NASCAR geometry?
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Adding to the tangle, Gibbs had earlier been bumped by Chris Buescher—an RFK driver in a paint scheme suspiciously similar to Keselowski’s usual ride. Coincidence? Maybe. Conspiracy theory bait? Definitely.
In the end, NASCAR took a look and shrugged. They told the No. 54 crew that, as far as they were concerned, Ty Gibbs did absolutely nothing wrong. Essentially saying, “Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.”
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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