Ty Gibbs won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway after bumping his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brandon Jones on the last lap of triple overtime in Saturday’s (Oct. 29) Dead On Tools 250.
Gibbs, who locked himself into the Championship 4 on points during the race, exited from his car to a showering of boos from the fans. Gibbs’ contact with Jones sent the No. 19 Toyota hard into the outside wall, where it sat in turn 1 as the race ended under the caution flag.
It’s Gibbs’ sixth win of 2022 and the 10th of his Xfinity career.
Ty Gibbs WRECKS Brandon Jones to WIN at Martinsville!
Jones is eliminated from the #NASCARPlayoffs. pic.twitter.com/jWpU9LpxCX
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 29, 2022
“I definitely didn’t want to wreck him but I wanted to get him out of the groove,” Gibbs said after the race. “I felt like we lost several spots earlier in the spring race the same way.”
That’s certainly not how Jones saw it, as the incident made the difference in him getting into the Championship 4.
“Really no need for it,” Jones said. “I get you want to win the race, you want to go for it. I want to race against the best, I want to try to beat the best out here, but man, you got to give me an opportunity and a chance. That’s not really having a chance to go race for the win. At least we could’ve been side-by-side or something. Second place, last place, didn’t matter for us today, we had to win the race.
“That part of it is what it is, but I would have liked to at least have a chance to race against him and tried to hold him off. That’s what’s fun is, going door-to-door racing and doing that, not just wrecking somebody. I ran behind Noah [Gragson] this year at Bristol [Motor Speedway], everyone was mad at me for not wrecking Noah there, but it was more of a respect thing and I wanted to get to his left rear and give him a chance to win the race. I got more satisfaction out of that than doing something like that.”
With Jones eliminated, Gibbs will race for the championship at Phoenix Raceway against the JR Motorsports drivers of Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry.
In the race itself, Sheldon Creed tied a career-best Xfinity finish in second, while Riley Herbst, Gragson and Allgaier completed the top five.
Sam Mayer, Austin Hill and AJ Allmendinger were eliminated from title contention with sixth-, ninth-, and 16th-place finishes, respectively. Nick Sanchez and Daniel Hemric came home seventh and eighth while Blaine Perkins scored a career-best Xfinity result in 10th.
It was another typical Martinsville affair with contact and short track spins littering the event. Early in stage one, Patrick Emerling and Joe Graf Jr. spun and crashed in turn 2, with both cars suffering damage. Graf’s No. 07 had rear-end problems the rest of the race while Emerling’s nose was crunched up. Just as the caution came out for this incident, Kris Wright also got in the wall after some contact from another car.
With about three laps to go in stage one, Bayley Currey appeared to cut a tire and hit the wall hard. The caution didn’t come out, though, and he went to the garage with a damaged right front suspension.
Jones went on to win the stage. However, he didn’t restart out front, as Gragson had pitted earlier and assumed the top spot on lap 71.
Gibbs got by Gragson about 20 laps before the next caution came out for Landon Cassill. On lap 106, the No. 10 wheel hopped in turn 3 and hit the wall in a similar spot as Currey.
“Just wheel-hopped into [turn] 3, same way Daniel [Hemric] did in practice,” Cassill told Frontstretch’s Michael Massie afterward. “My fault.”
Cassill added that he’s “still not over this one, I had this race circled.”
I caught up with a disappointed @landoncassill after a wheel hop took him out of the race.
He said he had this race circled. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/uDukkmztOe
— Michael Massie (@m_massie22) October 29, 2022
As the old saying goes, cautions breed cautions, as there were one after another in the closing laps of the final stage. One of the cautions involved a playoff driver in Hill. Jeremy Clements got loose while racing underneath Hill on lap 213, which got both cars sideways. Stefan Parsons also got some damage as he tried to get by the pair out of turn 2.
Soon after the next restart, with about 32 laps left, the track became a parking lot in turn 3. Myatt Snider and Mason Massey got turned around in front of several cars, causing a traffic jam. Rajah Caruth, Hill and several others were caught up in it.
The track is BLOCKED.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/LWGZ1DOksM
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 29, 2022
Shortly after the ensuing restart, Allmendinger cut a tire while racing Allgaier with 16 laps to go, effectively ending his chances to make the Championship 4.
Kyle Weatherman and Brandon Brown got turned on lap 243, bringing out yet another caution. Both drivers were able to return to the track with minimal damage.
Then, all three JGR cars — Gibbs on the bottom, Jones in the middle and Sammy Smith on the top — fought for the lead on the restart with two to go. Smith got spun out of turn 4 and the caution came out just before the white flag.
Based on the last scoring loop, Jones was ruled as the leader by NASCAR, leading to more confusion heading to a restart.
Overtime continued, as Josh Berry got turned around off the nose of Daniel Hemric and in front of Allgaier. Both Hemric and Allgaier received damage from the contact.
On yet another restart, Jones took the lead with a push from Sheldon Creed. Gibbs then bumped the No. 19 in turn 1 of the final lap, causing Jones to spin while Gibbs sailed by for the victory.
Gibbs and Jones weren’t the only fireworks after the race, as Myatt Snider and Hill were involved in a post-race scuffle.
Battles on the track, battles off the track.
Myatt Snider and Austin Hill get into it post-race. pic.twitter.com/eMKTCbxcTT
— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) October 29, 2022
Dead On Tools 250 Results
Just one race remains in the 2022 NXS season, the championship finale at Phoenix Raceway. Xfinity drivers will compete on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by USA Network.
NASCAR RACE WEEKEND CENTRAL: MARTINSVILLE
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.