Race Weekend Central

Ty Gibbs Takes Lead on Final Lap, Wins Xfinity Race at Road America

Ty Gibbs won the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Henry 180 at Road America on Saturday, July 2.

Gibbs took the lead from Kyle Larson on the final lap in overtime to win his fourth race of the season and eighth of his Xfinity career.

“I had a fun time racing with Kyle,” Gibbs told NBC Sports after the race. “I thought it was going to get a little rough there, but he’s such a great competitor, he’s a good person. … This is just awesome, I can’t even believe it, this is just wonderful.

“I feel like we were a little bit faster in the first half of the track. The last two sectors I felt like we were not as fast. I felt like, right now I need to earn my respect back and that’s what I’m doing. I think I’ve got my lessons, so just got to learn and not make mistakes. I made plenty of them today, I thought I lost the race on that one restart. Thankful to get this one back but I’ve still got to work on this first initial one and the second-to-the-last one.”

Larson was second after winning the first two stages. He commended Gibbs’ drive after taking the white flag.

“He did a really good job, it really started with my final corner coming to the white (flag). I didn’t get through there very good and got I think a little bit tight and missed my apex and was way back to the throttle and he had a run on me down the frontstretch. Obviously had to kind of protect the inside and he just got my angles messed up for those two corners. He did a really good job of executing and I didn’t. Bummer, but really fun race there all race long. I felt like it was me, the (No.) 54 [Gibbs], the (No.) 07 [Cole Custer], and if AJ [Allmendinger] could ever had a clean race he would have been up there as well. Fun, and congrats to Ty, that was really impressive, good job to him.”

Josh Berry, Austin Hill and Brandon Jones rounded out the top five in third through fifth, respectively.

Quite a few cars encountered issues during the race, with the Big One occurring in stage three.

Noah Gragson and Sage Karam made contact several times before Gragson turned right into Karam, sending him into the grass. The dust and smoke clouded the vision of those further in the pack, and multiple cars turned around.

Myatt Snider ran into Landon Cassill, while Brandon Brown and Tyler Reddick also incurred big hits.

Brown got out of his car very gingerly and sat down against the wall; Snider came over to check on him as safety crews approached the area. Brown later spoke with NBC Sports after he got out of the care center.

See also
Tempers Flare at Road America, Spark Massive Xfinity Series Crash

Gragson, meanwhile, recovered from the spin and a speeding penalty to grab an eighth-place finish.

Although some drivers experienced off-track excursions on this Wisconsin road course, varying pit strategies throughout the race really jumbled the field.

On lap 26, several cars pitted during the caution for the Big One, while Justin Allgaier stayed out on older tires. A couple of drivers were hit with penalties on pit road; first, Riley Herbst got very close to another pit crew going into his stall and was penalized for a safety violation. Allmendinger was also penalized after he sped on pit road. Both drivers came back from their errors to earn top 10s: Allmendinger was sixth and Herbst finished seventh.

Allgaier may have regretted not pitting during that period, as Jeremy Clements quickly passed him after the restart with about 17 laps left. Larson also followed through, while Custer joined the leaders. The No. 17 took the lead soon after, but then the No. 07 grabbed first later that same lap.

But on lap 34 another caution flag waved for Chris Dyson, who hit the right side wall hard, spun around partly in the air in front of Sam Mayer and into the gravel, ending his day.

The leaders pitted, and Custer lost several spots while Larson got out first. As a result, Larson soared out on the restart over Gibbs and Custer.

However, Custer began to lose his brakes and had a big impact with about two laps remaining, sending the race into overtime.

Gibbs tried to take the lead on the overtime restart, racing side-by-side with Larson, but No. 17 drove away. But Gibbs saw an opportunity to take the lead and did on the final lap, holding Larson off through the final turns.

Xfinity Results from Road America

The Xfinity Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway next Saturday, July 9, airing at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network.

About the author

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 as a motorsports fan and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.

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Echo

Larson wants skill versus skill. In the playoffs, will he use his bumper !

DoninAjax

I don’t think Cup drivers can drive in them.

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