Las Vegas — Ty Gibbs won Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, coming out on top in a five-lap shootout.
Gibbs took the lead for the first time in the race on the final restart and ran to his fifth career Xfinity win in his 21st start.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who was involved in early race drama, beat Noah Gragson for the victory.
“It was awesome,” Gibbs told Fox Sports. “Thank you to Justin Allgaier for my push (on the restart), too. That helped me out a lot, had a lot of fun racing with the JR (Motorsports) cars.”
Click here for the race results.
Gragson, a Las Vegas native, finished second after leading 52 laps. Gragson has finished in the top five in six of his seven career Xfinity starts at LVMS.
“Just got beat at our own game there,” Gragson told Fox Sports. “Restarts, just came up short.”
The top five was completed by Daniel Hemric, Josh Berry and Allgaier, giving JR Motorsports three of the top five cars. Allgaier led the most laps with 62.
The final run to the checkered flag was a result of a large multi-car wreck on a restart with 12 laps to go. It began when Ryan Truex’s No. 18 Toyota snapped loose in Turn 4 and hit Austin Hill’s No. 21 Chevy. It collected Riley Herbst, John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Ellis.
The race ended under caution for a crash on the last lap between Bayley Currey and CJ McLaughlin.
Pole-sitter AJ Allmendinger held the lead for the first 33 circuits of the track.
Four laps in, Ryan Sieg was running closely in front of Gibbs when his No. 39 Ford got loose and hit the outside wall. The caution wasn’t put out until a lap later when the engine on Brennan Poole’s No. 47 car expired.
During the caution period, the red flag had to be put out on Lap 19 for rain, and even snow, in the area around Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Under the red flag, Sieg had a somewhat tense conversation with Gibbs on pit road about their incident.
… and now, the discussion. 😳 pic.twitter.com/PODtcdIWKb
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 5, 2022
“He knows what he’s doing, he’s got the best car in the garage and then he just races you not very smart early, not even Lap 10,” Sieg told Fox Sports. “Not smart on his part, we’re just trying to survive and make it through and we’re just riding along and then all of a sudden you get packed with air (from behind).”
Sieg added: “He’s definitely probably got to learn his lesson, if you know what I mean.” Sieg was asked if their episode was done for the day: “I don’t think so.”
Fox then got Gibbs’ perspective.
“I got into him, it was my fault,” Gibbs said. “But we were all packed up underneath each other there. But once he started to get aero free …. I just didn’t have enough time to get out of it. … I told him ‘if my goal is to wreck you and ruin your day, you wouldn’t have made it around for another lap.’ It was my fault. … If he wants to keep it going, he can.”
The red flag was lifted roughly 41 minutes after it was displayed. The race resumed on Lap 23 of 200.
Sieg tried to get payback on Gibbs on lap 28, but it didn’t work out.
Sieg attempted to impede Gibbs’ path by moving him up the track in Turn 4. However, Sieg got loose and spun, making mild contact with Gibbs while further damaging his own car. Brett Moffitt and Sheldon Creed also got dinged up in the process of trying to avoid Sieg.
On the ensuing restart, Allmendinger lost the lead for the first time, giving it up to Sam Mayer. Gragson would then take the top spot with seven laps left in the first stage.
Gragson would claim the stage as JR Motorsports swept the top-three spots with Mayer and Berry.
Under caution, Creed stayed out of the pits and assumed the lead. When the race resumed on Lap 55, Creed was quickly overwhelmed. As he lost the lead to Mayer, Creed was tagged from behind by Berry, causing him to shoot up and make contact with Gragson, but a wreck was avoided.
The third non-stage caution waved on Lap 66 for a spin by Jesse Iwuji in his No. 34 car.
Mayer led over Gragson, Austin Hill and Gibbs at that point. The green flag returned with 20 to go in the stage as Gragson shot to the lead.
There would be two more cautions in the stage, for wrecks involving Kyle Weatherman and a very hard crash for Matt Mills into the inside wall on the backstretch. It started when Mills was sideswiped trying to pass Joe Graf Jr.
“Definitely the hardest hit I’ve ever had,” Mills told the Performance Racing Network. “Didn’t have time to brace for it, either. I feel OK now, just very unfortunate, felt like we had a fast car. Just got taken out by someone else’s mess.”
Gragson would complete the stage sweep, winning the second over Gibbs and Mayer. Mayer was first off pit road, getting out ahead of Hill and Gragson.
Hill, the Daytona winner, took the lead on Lap 97. Allgaier began challenging him with 92 laps to go and overtook him one lap later.
Gragson had to pit unexpectedly with 63 laps to go for a possible tire that was chording. Regular pit stops began a few laps later.
While Gragson cycled to the lead during the pit sequence, he was told with about 53 laps to go that he was two laps short on fuel. Allgaier retook the lead with 46 laps to go.
The ninth caution flag of the day occurred with 29 laps to go for a rather violent wreck involving Iwuji, Ryan Vargas and Stefan Parsons.
Under caution all the leaders pit, with Allgaier beating Gibbs and Gragson off pit road.
Gragson returned to the lead on the restart with a push from Hemric.
Only one lap elapsed before a Mayer crash in turn one brought the caution back out.