NASCAR: Ty Gibbs makes his feelings clear on Martinsville fight

Ty Gibbs made his feelings clear about Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway and his ensuing brawl with Sam Mayer.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs dominated last Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway, only to be passed by teammate Brandon Jones on the final lap following a restart with two laps remaining.

But while Jones went on to secure his first win of the 2022 season, chaos ensued behind the driver of the #19 Toyota as the rest of the field made their way through turns three and four of the four-turn 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia.

Gibbs was on the outside of a three-wide battle for second place, with longtime rival Sam Mayer of JR Motorsports in the middle and Kaulig Racing’s Landon Cassill on the inside.

But the battle wasn’t just for second place for Gibbs. He was in a separate battle with Mayer for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize. Cassill ultimately prevailed for a career-high second, but Mayer made contact with Gibbs’s #54 Toyota and shoved him wide to pass him.

Unfortunately for Mayer, he was also passed by Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger, who went home with the $100,000 thanks to a third place finish. Mayer finished in fifth with Gibbs in eighth.

Gibbs didn’t take too kindly to the way he was driven by Mayer, despite the fact that he is known for driving everyone else the exact same way.

He damaged his own #54 Toyota by running into the back of Mayer’s #1 Chevrolet on the cooldown lap, despite being told, “Don’t. Be smart. We don’t need that, man.”, on the radio. He was fined $15,000 for making further contact with Mayer’s car in the pits.

Gibbs shoved a NASCAR official out of his way and confronted Mayer, and he shoved him while he was taking his helmet off. As Gibbs began to walk away, Mayer confronted him again to continue the discussion, only for Gibbs to begin swinging at his head, leaving Mayer with a bloody lip as well as a bloody cut above his left eye.

Both drivers were called to the Xfinity Series officials’ hauler after the fight for a meeting that lasted roughly 10 minutes.

Gibbs has since made his feelings on the incident very clear, stating the following.

"“I talked to Sam. I was frustrated. I was like, ‘What are you doing?,’ when we got drove in the fence. We were kind of shoved a little bit and I turned away. When I got grabbed and kind of pulled, that just led up to that moment. It just built up, built up, built up and I snapped and that’s just part of it. Hopefully, I learn from it.”"

All in all, his comments are basically no different than what he said in the moments after the brawl.

"“Well, I tried to talk to him then he got all in my face. At that point, we gotta start fighting. We got put in a bad position there. The only thing I’m mad about is the #1 (Mayer), he wasn’t going to get past the #16 (Allmendinger) and I just got hit in the left rear. It’s frustrating, I just got drove into the fence at the end. You know, I was on the other side of it last week. So, that’s just part of it.”"

He knows he snapped and hopes to learn from it, but at the same time, he was still frustrated with the way he was driven. However, he also admitted that he has been on the opposite end of this sort of situation before. With that in mind, he can probably expect to be driven that way in the future.

It’s almost like he knows he was in the wrong, but he doesn’t want to fully admit it and still wants to place blame on Mayer. Considering the fact that he is the only one who swung, and the fact that he kept his helmet on to do so, it is interesting that he would be the one to make the claim that “we gotta start fighting”. That remark only further illustrates this idea.