Gibbs Victory
Ty Gibbs celebrates his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the 2022. (Photo: Jason Reasin)
NASCAR Xfinity Series

Gibbs Wins At Road America With Last-Lap Pass Of Larson

July 2, 2022

ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. – With a last-lap pass of the defending NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs took advantage of an overtime finish to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Road America.

In a two-lap shootout to decide the race, Gibbs tried to get to the outside of Larson in Turn 1 after taking the white flag. When the pass wasn’t successful and allowed Larson to get back in front, Gibbs gave a small shove to Larson’s rear bumper in-between Turns 1 and 3.

As they neared Turn 3, Larson went high, opening the door for Gibbs to power by. Larson would make two major efforts to get back by the No. 54 Toyota, but none kept Gibbs from his fourth win of the year.

Gibbs took the win after Larson won the first two stages and led 31 of 46 laps. Gibbs only led five laps around the 4-mile road course.

“I don’t know (how he beat Larson head-to-head),” Gibbs said afterward. “I had a fun time racing with Kyle. I thought it was going to get a little rough there, but he’s such a great competitor and a great person. … This is awesome. I can’t believe it. It’s wonderful.”

Gibbs is the 13th different winner in the Xfinity Series’ 13th race at Road America. This is Gibbs’ third win on a road course after victories in 2021 at Daytona and Watkins Glen International.

“I feel like right now I need to earn respect back and that’s what I’m doing,” said Gibbs, who has encouraged the wrath of competitors through multiple on-track incidents this season. “I feel like I’ve got my lessons – just got to learn and not make mistakes. I made plenty off them today, I could have lost the race on that one restart, so thankful to get this one back, but I still have to work on the restarts – the first initial and the next-to-last.”

Larson, driving the No. 17 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, was making his first Xfinity start since 2018. It was also the first time Hendrick had fielded a Xfinity car from its own shop since 2009. Larson came away impressed with Gibbs from their first time on-track together.

“Ty did a really good job,” Larson told media members on pit road. “I didn’t get off the last corner coming to the white very good. And he had a run on me and I had to protect the right side. Because he was really good on the braking and kind of wanted him to get to my left side, to mess his exit up. But he did a good job of getting me to have to kind of change my angles up there those first couple of corners, and then I overshot (Turn) 3 just a little bit and wasn’t able to get the wheel turned like I needed. And yeah, he got by. So he did a really good job. And it was a fun race.”

Why didn’t Larson attempt to move Gibbs out of the way before the checkered flag?

Because Gibbs passed him clean.

“I didn’t feel like it would been right for me to go and move him out of the way,” Larson said.

The top five was completed by Austin Hill, Josh Berry and Brandon Jones.

For Hill, it’s his fifth top-10 finish in the last six races. Berry, the high-profile Late Model racer, has now finished in the top five of the last two road courses.

The race, originally scheduled for 45 laps, was marred by a violent 13-car wreck on Lap 25, shortly after the start of the final stage.

The wreck was triggered when Noah Gragson intentionally turned right into the left-rear quarter panel of Sage Karam’s No. 45 Chevrolet.

MORE: Karam: ‘Zero Respect’ For Gragson After Wreck

Gragson was retaliating after contact between him and Karam briefly put Gragson’s No. 9 Chevrolet in the dirt before Gragson darted back on the straightaway toward Turn 5.

A combination of the the dirt kicked up by Gragson and the smoke from him and Karam spinning caused a smoke screen that obscured the track. In the end, the wreck eliminated Karam, Brandon Brown, Landon Cassill, Tyler Reddick, Myatt Snider and Brett Moffitt.

Gragson finished eighth.