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Ty Gibbs made his historic debut at the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday night, when the 18-year-old won his first series start, preventing current champion Austin Cindric on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course.
Gibbs took the lead in a double overtime restart and stayed off the field for a comfortable 1,726 seconds at the finish line, dropping to his knees to reflect after leaving his Toyota No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing – a car owned of his grandfather, Joe Gibbs of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
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With his victory at the Super Start Batteries 188 in Daytona Presented by O’Reilly, Gibbs becomes only the sixth driver to win at his first start in the series – equaling a feat achieved by the NASCAR Hall of Fame Dale Earnhardt in 1982 and, more recently , Kurt Busch 15 years ago.
Gibbs becomes the youngest driver to win a NASCAR Xfinity Series road event. At 18, 4 months and 16 days, he breaks Cindric’s most recent record (20 years).
In most measures, it was an emotional victory after an intense and exciting race on the 14-corner, 3.61-mile course. Cindric led the most laps (29 of the 56), but failed to reach Gibbs in the end.
“I just can’t thank you all right now, it’s really like a dream come true for me, it’s just incredible,” said an emotional Gibbs, who made his first laps in the car and made his first pit stop in his career on Saturday. night.
“I really didn’t think I could do it,” he said of the intense race at the end. “I fought and we won.”
RELATED: Gibbs Thrilled After First Career Victory
Gibbs’ teammates Daniel Hemric and Brandon Jones finished third and fourth, followed by Jeb Burton and another member of the JGR family, Harrison Burton. Miguel Paludo, Brandon Brown, Justin Haley and Jeremy Clements completed the top 10.
A win for Cindric would have been his second in so many races in 2021 and he returned to the front in an inspired way to fight for the victory. He and AJ Allmendinger – another road racing star – collided as they ran for the first and second time towards the Stage 1 checkered flag. Allmendinger’s car was badly damaged and he ran the rest of the race.
Cindric’s # 22 team, Penske Ford, was also damaged, but the team did repairs and Cindric started work. He returned to the race after several pit stops in 33rd place, but still on the first lap. His street racing skills and team strategy put him in a position to fight for victory.
“Obviously I don’t want to run to such an aggressive stage, I would love to see a repeat and I hope we can avoid something like that, because obviously AJ and I would fight for a victory later,” said Cindric. “I hated having so much damage to our PPG Ford Mustang anytime soon. It looked like he was trying to block there, I don’t know if he knew I was there or not. It was all over and we got a good finish. Congratulations to Ty. “
MORE: Cindric and Allmendinger conflict in Stage 1
Gibbs’ grandfather, owner of the team, stepped down from the pit and stood behind it to watch the final moments of the race. During a pit stop at the end of the race, teenager Ty was asking his team for peanut butter cookies. An hour later, he was hoisting the biggest trophy of his young career.
“I don’t even know how to feel,” said the younger Gibbs. “It is very difficult for me to explain. After my uncle [JGR President J.D. Gibbs] passed away, it has been difficult for me. It’s just a dream come true. I’m just rambling. I’m excited. Confused emotions, for sure. This is just incredible. “
From his close family, Gibbs again wiped his tears.
“The family is everything to me, they do a lot for me,” said Gibbs, who also won Stage 2. “I can’t thank them enough, this is just incredible; this is a dream come true. It’s all the man up there, sorry, I’m a wreck. I didn’t think this was going to happen. This is amazing, I can’t thank everyone enough for watching and last week I had a terrible interview. I want to apologize for everyone, I just can’t seem to thank everyone enough. This is just incredible. “
After the second race of the season, Cindric holds the lead of points by 24 scorers over Harrison Burton of Joe Gibbs Racing in second.
The next race of the Xfinity Series is the Contender Boats 250, scheduled for next Saturday (16:30 ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Grades: There were no problems with post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage in Daytona. … Hemric was forced to fall to the bottom of the field for the start after his No. 18 JGR Toyota failed three times in the pre-race inspection. He had been scheduled to start fifth in the 40-car field.
Contributing: Team reports