NASCAR: This might be the worst payback attempt of all-time

Ryan Sieg attempted to get payback on Ty Gibbs in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, and not only did it not work, but it backfired.

A rain, snow and sleet delay did not erase the memories of early contact in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from the mind of RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg.

Running just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs only a few laps into the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Las Vegas, Nevada, Sieg’s #39 Chevrolet took slight contact from Gibbs’s #54 Toyota.

This resulted in a spin for the driver of the #39 Chevrolet, sending him into the wall and resulting in significant damage.

During the ensuing delay, Sieg said about Gibbs, “He’s definitely — probably — gonna learn his lesson, if you know what I mean.”

Asked if it was “over” for the rest of the race, he responded with, “I don’t think so.”

Those comments were not the only comments the 34-year-old Tucker, Georgia native made after the contact from Gibbs. He dropped a number of f-bombs and called Gibbs a “little b****”, saying he “acts like a punk” while referencing the fact that his grandfather owns the team. He also mentioned that he has the “best car in the garage” but wasn’t racing smart.

Gibbs owned the contact, stating that it was his fault, but he maintained that it was unintentional. With that being said, Sieg never accused him of intentionally running into him; his issue was more about the aggression so early in the race, with Gibbs having a much faster car and clearly poised to get around him eventually.

But things did get intentional a bit later on.

A handful of laps after the race went back green, Sieg was black-flagged by NASCAR for failing to meet minimum speed, and race officials called him back to pit road. However, he attempted to retaliate against Gibbs first, sliding up the track and into the path of the #54 Toyota.

We stress the word “attempted”.

It reminded many fans of Danica Patrick’s retaliation attempt on Landon Cassill in the Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in October 2012, when she ended up in the wall herself after aiming for payback. However, Patrick at least managed to spin Cassill out, unlike Sieg on Gibbs.

Instead, Sieg only further damaged his family-owned #39 Chevrolet, but innocent bystanders Sheldon Creed of Richard Childress Racing and Brett Moffitt of Our Motorsports were caught up in the mess. Fortunately for them, they rebounded to finish in seventh and eighth place, respectively.

And not only did Gibbs get through the wreck, but he went on to win the race. He led only the final six laps and won the race under caution after getting around JR Motorsports’ Noah Gragson.

While this attempt didn’t pan out, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Sieg try to get back at Gibbs again eventually.

The next race on the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the United Rentals 200, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 from Phoenix Raceway beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 12. If you haven’t started a free trial of FuboTV, do so now!