NASCAR drama fuels another unnecessary controversy

The post-race antics of Ty Gibbs led to another needless controversy surrounding the NASCAR Xfinity Series star’s religious beliefs.

Like it or not, NASCAR fans have been waiting, almost foaming at the mouth, to disparage Ty Gibbs for something — really, anything.

Long seen by a large portion of the fanbase as a “silver spoon” kid born on third base thinking he hit a triple, the 19-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native landed a full-time ride with Joe Gibbs Racing, the team owned by his grandfather, for the 2022 Xfinity Series season after winning four races in a part-time role last year.

While he finds himself in the fastest car in the series, he has also found himself in hot water for the way he has raced some of his competitors, specifically RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and teammate John Hunter Nemechek at Richmond Raceway.

But despite the controversy, he found himself entering last Friday night’s race at Martinsville Speedway with three wins in seven races.

You will never hear him talk after a race win and not give all glory to God and his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s a part of him. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The Gibbs family are devout Christians and not afraid to share it, and it’s not just talking the talk either.

But with that comes an inherent responsibility to set a good example. And when he was finally raced the way he races everyone else, he did the complete opposite.

In a battle for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize, Gibbs was shoved wide by longtime rival Sam Mayer of JR Motorsports on the final lap of the race.

It was really a long time coming, given how Gibbs races everybody else. It was only a matter of time before someone raced him the same way.

The prize ultimately went to neither driver, as Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger overtook both to finish in third place. Mayer finished in fifth, while Gibbs, who had dominated the race and actually led the field to the green flag on the final restart, finished in eighth.

So unsurprisingly, given how he talks after winning, Gibbs’s meltdown in the pits after Friday night’s Xfinity Series race garnered even more criticism than most meltdowns we see in NASCAR.

After making contact with Mayer’s #1 Chevrolet on the cooldown lap, damaging his own #54 Toyota in the process despite the fact that he was told not to do so over the radio, he made more contact with Mayer’s car in the pits, netting him a $15,000 fine. He then went to confront Mayer, shoving a NASCAR official out of the way to get to him.

With Mayer taking his helmet off, Gibbs shoved him and went to walk away. But Mayer went to confront him again to continue the discussion, only for Gibbs to take multiple swings at his head, leaving him with a bloody cut above his left eye as well as a bloody lip.

Nobody is perfect. Emotions can get the best of anyone. We get that, and Gibbs and any other Christian gets that. Gibbs admitted afterward that he “snapped” and he hopes to learn from the whole situation.

"“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.”"

But with Gibbs wearing his beliefs on his sleeve any other time, this element of religion was going to find its way into a debate in which, for any other driver, it would never be touched upon. It’s a sensitive topic, which only makes this situation worse.

As you might expect, this was one of the first things fans brought up after watching his violent and somewhat cowardly display after Friday night’s race.

Some viewed the idea that this was even brought up as an attack on Gibbs’s beliefs and even Christianity itself when, indeed, emotions can get the best of anyone.

Others showed no hesitation to do just that, calling out Gibbs’s hypocrisy and making generalizations about everyone else who shares his religious beliefs.

When it was all said and done, it created yet another unnecessarily divisive situation among fans, one that goes beyond the sort of “driver vs. driver” disputes that have made NASCAR what it is for decades.

Let’s hope for everyone’s sake that Gibbs has learned from it and is willing to make amends, because based on the on-track reputation that he has earned, Mayer may not be the last to test his patience.