Ty Gibbs viewed it as a “Hail Mary” when Michael McDowell purposely maneuvered his No. 34 Ford in front of Gibbs’ No. 54 and held him up in the All-Star Open.
All might have been well and good if the two were battling for the lead, but that wasn’t exactly the case. McDowell was a lap down, while Gibbs was leading the race — safely in one of two transfer positions into Sunday night’s All-Star Race.
The No. 34’s block allowed Josh Berry, who was second, to slide up the inside of Gibbs and into the lead. After leading 54 laps of the 100-lap race, Gibbs was unable to overtake Berry and finished second to the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Berry, Gibbs and Noah Gragson — who won the fan vote — will start in the All-Star Race.
McDowell finished 13th.
“I just think that’s what you see in LCQ’s like this — throwing ‘Hail Mary’s.’ We’re racing to get in,” Gibb said.
The No. 54 driver admitted he threw a “Hail Mary” of his own with 43 laps to go, which was the incident that initially sparked the on-track feud between he and McDowell.
Gibbs raced McDowell and Justin Haley three-wide as he held the low line through turns three and four. He bumped McDowell, which then pushed the No. 34 into Haley and caused the No. 31 to wreck against the outside wall.
“He just drove me all the way through the corner and into the 31 and wrecked both of us. I mean, it’s pretty clear none of us were going to make the corner with the 54 driving me wide-open into the corner,” McDowell recounted.
The incident looked different from Gibbs’ perspective, who is admittedly still jaded from a past run-in with the No. 34 team.
“At Martinsville, we were running 18th and they clobbered us and about wrecked us, so I think it’s honestly fair game,” the Cup Series rookie noted, referring to the Cup Series stop at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on April 16.
Meanwhile, Cup Series veteran McDowell indicated the pressure of making the $1 million-to-win All-Star Race prize was likely the leading factor.
“It’s a big night, so people are going to leave with hurt feelings and tempers are going to flare,” McDowell said. “It sucks that the guy that moved you and moved a lot of cars made it in, but at the same time I’m not going to wreck him and send him out or do something stupid with a broken car. I just wanted to let him know that it’s unacceptable and he knows that.”
McDowell also attempted to hold up Gibbs with 10 laps to go in the Open, taking away the inside line after Berry made his way past the No. 34. However, due to the significant damage done to McDowell’s car, Gibbs quickly overtook him.
“If anything, I kind of learned how to pass people in that position and learned what the apron was going to do,” Gibbs said. “So, we look at it as a positive and keep moving on.”