It was a chorus of boos from the crowd when Ty Gibbs climbed out his Toyota Supra at Phoenix Raceway, but the driver didn’t care. He’d just won the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship race, scoring his seventh victory this year.
While his Joe Gibbs Racing car was fast, leading 125 of the 200 laps, his pit crew gave him the crucial advantage late in the race. With 40 laps to go, Gibbs earned a spot on pit road to restart first, a lead he never relinquished. He then managed to hold on a hard-charging Noah Gragson, who lost a handful of spots on pit road, in the closing laps to win by just 0.397 seconds.
“I want to say thank you to my team, my pit crew,” Gibbs said. “Everybody did an awesome job. They put us here. Awesome job to my team.”
And he still managed to win despite the pressure he’s been under all week after punting his teammate to win the previous race at Martinsville. The move denied Brandon Jones a spot in the Championship 4. The fans still weren’t happy with that move but Ty was ready to apologize.
“I know what I did last week was unacceptable, and I apologize once again,” Gibbs acknowledged. “It was unacceptable because we could have had two shots to win this deal, and it was stupid from an organization standpoint. I will sit here and tell you I’m sorry as much as I can, but it is not going to fix it. I’ve got to fix my actions.”
To Ty’s credit, he and his opponents raced hard but fair. As the laps wound down, Gibbs and the JR Motorsports driver of Justin Allgaier in the 7 car battled cleanly before Allgaier’s teammate Gragson made the pass.
“I feel like today I had a good race,” Gibbs said. “We made some good moves. Me and the 7 were racing really hard. Hopefully we put on a good show for you fans, thank you for all of what you guys do.”
Grandfather and team owner Joe Gibbs echoed that sentiment.
“Just think how tough you have to be, how resilient you have to be after going through that last week,” Joe Gibbs said. “The hardest thing for him was going to be all the stuff leading up to it, man. When you got between these two walls on this the racetrack, that’s where he shined today, man.”
“He did such a marvelous job all day,” the elder Gibbs said.
As for Noah Gragson, who dominated the season with eight wins and the most laps led, all he could say was, “We just came up one race short.”
Gragson and Gibbs will be racing each other in the Cup Series next year. Ty will stay with his grandfather’s team, expected to be driving the 18 car vacated by Kyle Busch, while Gragson has confirmed a seat with Petty GMS – which Jimmie Johnson just bought into as co-owner – in the 42 car.
“First of all, hats off to everyone at JR Motorsports,” added Justin Allgaier, who finished third. “To put three cars in the Championship 4, obviously that was a big deal. To come out of here though with not one of us being the champion is probably the most difficult part.”
As for the final Championship contender, Josh Berry ended up thirteenth after trying to recover from his restart, where he ran high and hit the wall trying to find the grip compound.
Berry said he “just got too high on that restart and just screwed that one up, I guess. We were behind all day trying to get up there and race with these guys. We finally got up there, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Behind Allgaier, Kaulig Racing teammates Landon Cassill and AJ Allmendinger were fourth and fifth, respectively. Sheldon Creed, Riley Herbst, Daniel Hemric, Austin Hill and Sammy Smith completed the top 10.
Saturday marked the final race of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. The series will return next February at Daytona International Speedway.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Results NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race
Phoenix Raceway
Avondale, Arizona
Saturday, November 5, 2022
1. (1) Ty Gibbs (P), Toyota, 200.
2. (4) Noah Gragson (P), Chevrolet, 200.
3. (11) Justin Allgaier (P), Chevrolet, 200.
4. (6) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 200.
5. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 200.
6. (8) Sheldon Creed #, Chevrolet, 200.
7. (19) Riley Herbst, Ford, 200.
8. (10) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 200.
9. (14) Austin Hill #, Chevrolet, 200.
10. (2) Sammy Smith, Toyota, 200.
11. (5) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 200.
12. (3) Nicholas Sanchez, Chevrolet, 200.
13. (9) Josh Berry (P), Chevrolet, 200.
14. (35) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 200.
15. (30) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 200.
16. (21) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 200.
17. (37) Rajah Caruth(i), Chevrolet, 200.
18. (33) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 200.
19. (20) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 200.
20. (7) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 200.
21. (17) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 200.
22. (22) Kyle Sieg #, Ford, 200.
23. (18) Kaz Grala(i), Toyota, 200.
24. (25) Joey Gase, Toyota, 200.
25. (36) Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, 200.
26. (31) Kris Wright(i), Chevrolet, 200.
27. (28) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 200.
28. (15) Stefan Parsons(i), Chevrolet, 199.
29. (26) Brennan Poole(i), Chevrolet, 198.
30. (29) JJ Yeley, Ford, 197.
31. (32) Dawson Cram, Ford, 196.
32. (24) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 196.
33. (34) Mason Massey, Chevrolet, 196.
34. (13) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 195.
35. (23) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 194.
36. (38) Joe Graf Jr, Ford, 193.
37. (27) Brandon Brown, Ford, Suspension, 154.
38. (12) Dillon Bassett, Chevrolet, Engine, 152.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 91.174 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 11 Mins, 37 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.397 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 49 laps.
Lead Changes: 15 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Gibbs (P) 1-49;N. Sanchez 50-53;S. Smith 54;T. Gibbs (P) 55-65;S. Smith 66-74;N. Gragson (P) 75-78;T. Gibbs (P) 79-94;J. Allgaier (P) 95-99;T. Gibbs (P) 100-116;N. Gragson (P) 117-147;J. Allgaier (P) 148-159;T. Gibbs (P) 160-169;J. Allgaier (P) 170-176;T. Gibbs (P) 177;J. Allgaier (P) 178-179;T. Gibbs (P) 180-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Ty Gibbs (P) 7 times for 125 laps; Noah Gragson (P) 2 times for 35 laps; Justin Allgaier (P) 4 times for 26 laps; Sammy Smith 2 times for 10 laps; Nicholas Sanchez 1 time for 4 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 54,9,7,8,10,2,48,18,19,16
Stage #2 Top Ten: 54,7,9,18,10,1,19,16,2,8
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