‘Nothing wrong’ for Ty Gibbs in NASCAR Cup top-10 finish at Sonoma
SONOMA, Calif. — Ty Gibbs continued to shine on road courses with “nothing wrong” in a seventh-place finish Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.
“Nothing wrong” was the ruling from NASCAR after drama unfolded on pit road between Gibbs’ No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team and Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 RFK Racing team.
While coming into his pit box, Gibbs drove through Keselowski’s box where his crew prepared for a pit stop. Keselowski’s tire carrier, Telvin McClurkin, claimed Gibbs clipped his hand and twisted his wrist. After finishing the pit stop, McClurkin had a shoving match with Gibbs’ crew to express his displeasure.
RFK Racing posted video on social media showing the incident.
NASCAR ruled Gibbs did “nothing wrong,” according to the TNT broadcast, absolving of any penalties. In fact, NASCAR reportedly ruled Keselowski’s team should’ve given Gibbs more room to pull his car into his pit box.
All that to say, Gibbs and Keselowski had speed Sunday. While they didn’t have the pace to compete with Shane Van Gisbergen, both teams are headed in the right direction.
For Gibbs, he had another solid points day. He earned 32 points from finishing ninth in stage one and seventh in the race.
Still, leaving Sonoma at 60 points below the NASCAR Cup Series playoff cutline, a win may be what gets Gibbs into the playoffs. Luckily, the No. 54 team is improving as the season goes on.
In the 14 races before Michigan, Gibbs had only three top-15 finishes. In the six races since Michigan, Gibbs hasn’t finished outside of the top-15 and has picked up three top-10 finishes. Although he didn’t finish inside of the top-10 in Mexico City and EchoPark Speedway Atlanta, he led the second- and third-most laps in those races – leading 27 laps in Mexico City and 32 laps at EchoPark.
The next race for the NASCAR Cup Series is the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400, Sunday, July 20, at Dover Motor Speedway. In 2024, Gibbs finished 10th while teammate Denny Hamlin took home the checkered flag.
Gibbs is within striking distance of the playoff cutline but may need his teammate’s fortune to stave off another new winner knocking him down in points.
- Tyler Reddick: 615 points (+149 points to the cutline)
- Chris Buescher: 500 (+34)
- Alex Bowman: 498 (+32)
- Bubba Wallace: 469 (+3)
- Ryan Preece: 466 (-3)
- Kyle Busch: 432 (-37)
- A.J. Allmendinger: 419 (-50)
- Ty Gibbs: 409 (-60)
- Erik Jones: 401 (-68)
- Michael McDowell: 399 (-70)
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