Ty Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek delivered a thrilling finish with Gibbs completing a bump-and-run on Nemechek on the last lap to win the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday afternoon. It is Gibbs’ third victory of the season. With the win, Gibbs qualifies for the Dash 4 Cash race at Martinsville Raceway on Friday evening.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Richmond Raceway
Race 7 of 33 – 187.5 miles, 250 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, TY GIBBS
2nd, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
3rd, Sam Mayer*
4th, AJ Allmendinger*
5th, Riley Herbst*
13th, BRANDON JONES
26th, DEREK GRIFFITH
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TY GIBBS, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What is that fine line you walk when you are racing for a win?
“I definitely deserve one back. We are racing for wins, and they are hard to come by, so I had to take it. We were fighting tight all day. We just couldn’t hold the bottom. John Hunter (Nemechek) was a little faster and we had a great race. Good for Toyota to finish 1-2. I just got in there deep and had to bump him out of the way up the track. We are short track racing. Thank you to Monster Energy. What a great car, this is awesome for Toyota. Cool to get our third win, so hopefully, we can keep it rolling. Thank you to everybody. Thank you to the Man above.”
How are you able to do what you do at such a young age?
“Like I said, I deserve one back. We are racing for a win, and I’ve got to do whatever I can. We raced really good there. I felt like we put on a good show, so that is really important. I want to say thank you to the Man above for blessing me so much. Thank you to Chris Gayle (crew chief), Kyle Abrahims (engineer), my whole team. Everybody. We had a good run.”
Can you tell us more about that final lap?
“We had a good race. My Monster Energy Toyota GR Supra was really good. We were just a little tight there. I lost some ground there in lap traffic that wouldn’t get out of the way, but that is just racing. I raced John Hunter (Nemechek) hard. I definitely deserve one back, but like I said, these races are hard to come by and I had to take advantage of it. We had a good race. The 18 crew did a really good job, so kudos to them but we had to take it. We have to be greedy in these things.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 18 Safeway Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
What is your view on the last couple laps from your perspective?
“Yes, he and I will settle it on Monday. I don’t want to say too much and get myself in trouble, but just got drove through. He didn’t even try to make the corner there. Racers never forget that is for sure.”
Toyota Racing PR
