Ty Gibbs is finally a NASCAR Cup Series race winner.
In Sunday’s Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 54 had to fend off two of the sport’s best in Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson to score the victory.
Occupying the high line, Gibbs held on strong against Blaney, who took the bottom line as they rounded through turns three and four on the final laps.
Gibbs was first to the finish line and earned his first career Cup Series victory in his 131st start. Blaney was second, followed by Larson in third, Tyler Reddick in fourth, and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top five.
Ty Gibbs won in overtime: How it happened
After a late caution that saw Chase Elliott spin out with 24 laps to go, Blaney lost control of the lead after the top five cars stayed out.
One of those was Gibbs, followed by Carson Hocevar, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick.
On the ensuing restart, Reddick leapt from fifth to second and got side-by-side with Gibbs for the lead. However, the grandson of owner Joe Gibbs managed to keep Reddick at bay.
The overtime restart was set up after Kyle Busch tangled with Riley Herbst, sending the latter spinning.
Blaney had made his way back to second prior to the caution flag.
On the overtime restart, Gibbs wheeled his way to victory, while Blaney nearly lost control of his No. 12 car on the inside coming to the finish.
Owner Joe Gibbs on emotional first win
It was a special moment for not just Ty, but the Gibbs family as a whole.
Car owner Joe Gibbs finally got to witness his grandson take the checkered flag in a NASCAR Cup Series race.
The Gibbs family went through tragedy in November 2022 when Coy Gibbs, son of Joe and father of Ty, passed away the night after Ty won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship.
Joe, who is known to have great faith, believed Coy was smiling down on his son as he drove to victory lane.
“For us and for the family, it’s just a huge deal. … There’s so many people to thank. I start first with the Lord. The Lord has blessed our family and [I] just really appreciate this. I also just want to say that Coy guided Ty all the way from go-karts to Cup. I know he’s got a great view of what just happened,” Joe Gibbs said post-race.
Kyle Larson swept Bristol stages
Ryan Blaney led the field to the green flag after qualifying on the pole the day prior.
Kyle Larson quickly jumped to second place after starting eighth in his No. 5 Chevrolet, and eventually made his move on Blaney for the lead on lap 44.
The first caution came out on lap 63 when Brad Keselowski spun his No. 6 Ford around in the second turn.
Chase Elliott and Josh Berry assumed the top two spots after staying off pit road during the caution period, but Larson pounced on the restart with a three-wide move on the outside to regain control.
From there, the two-time and defending Cup champion captured the win in stage one with Christopher Bell second.
After dropping to the back due to a speeding penalty, Bell started from the rear of the field to start the second stage.
On lap 145, Bell smacked the outside wall coming off turn four, bringing out the third caution.
The fourth caution flew at lap 161 due to a four-car incident in turn four involving Shane Van Gisbergen, John Hunter Nemechek, Todd Gilliland, and Alex Bowman.
While Bowman exited the race after the incident, it was his HMS teammate, Larson, who fended off Blaney to secure the win in stage two.
Stage three mishaps for Kyle Busch, others
With 188 laps to go, Kyle Busch spun around off turn four after contact with Riley Herbst. Busch collected Erik Jones in the incident and triggered the caution.
That is what ultimately set up Busch retaliating against Herbst by spinning the No. 35 car, setting up the overtime restart to the finish.
Connor Zilisch slapped the wall in between turns one and two, then took a slide coming off turn two to bring out the yellow with 119 laps remaining.
In total, there were nine caution flags for 72 laps. Sixteen cars finished on the lead lap.
The NASCAR Cup Series circuit heads to the Kansas Speedway next Sunday, April 19, at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
Ty Gibbs Earns First Career NASCAR Cup Series Win at Bristol