Joe Gibbs Racing gets 2nd spot in NASCAR championship finale

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TALLADEGA, Alabama. Just a month ago, Joe Gibbs Racing faced internal rebellion when two championship-eligible drivers didn't feel like the team owner's grandson was helping his teammates try to win a Cup title.

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Ty Gibbs, grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, raced heavily with Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin early in the New Hampshire playoff race. Gibbs was ineligible for the championship, Hamlin was upset about being held up by a teammate, so he ran Gibbs out of his way.

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This led to organizational discussions about what Joe Gibbs expected from his four drivers for the rest of the playoffs. The reward came Sunday when Ty Gibbs pushed Chase Briscoe to victory in overtime at Talladega Superspeedway, giving JGR two spots in the NASCAR championship race.

Briscoe is in the winner-take-all finale with teammate Hamlin as Toyota has taken the first two of four spots with one race remaining to decide the championship field.

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“Ty Gibbs, just an incredible teammate. I mean, honestly, I wouldn't have won this race without Ty,” Briscoe said. “It's an amazing team effort. I can't believe I won a race at a superspeedway. I haven't done that at any level.”

Team owner Gibbs, a three-time Super Bowl-winning coach and NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner, praised his grandson for leading Briscoe to victory lane. He also explained the intricacies of fielding four separate teams under one banner.

“It's such a competitive world. I'm kind of used to it in football. You know,” Joe Gibbs said. “But here we have four teams and the challenge is always to get them to work together. If you think about it, each driver has their own career. They have their own sponsor and it becomes extremely competitive.”

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“So sometimes you run into problems like that. It's part of the sport. Guys, you know, are very competitive and want to make it happen. And so at different times you might have problems that you have to deal with.”

Briscoe, who scored his first career superspeedway win, is in his first season driving for Gibbs. He came in as Martin Truex Jr.'s replacement when Truex retired and Stewart-Haas Racing folded late last year.

Now he will compete for the Cup title for the first time.

“Ty was the only reason I won the race, he was extremely loyal to me,” Briscoe said. “When I made my move, Ty came with me. He was really selfless in that he was going for his first career win and could have easily tried to make a move or do something else. But he just pushed me to win and just an incredible team effort.”

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Briscoe was sixth at the restart (a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish) and Hendrick Motorsports drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson split the front row and lined up side-by-side so the Chevrolet drivers could control the race.

Byron was assisted from behind by fellow Chevrolet driver Carson Hocevar, a Spire Motorsports driver with ties to Hendrick. Larson's push came from Toyota driver Bubba Wallace, who gave Larson the lead.

But Larson appeared to run out of fuel and slumped off the pace, and Daytona 500 winner Byron, facing playoff elimination, lost his chance to win when his push from Hocevar was too strong, causing Byron to spin out.

Briscoe, meanwhile, had no problems. He was determined to push Wallace, who is out of the playoffs, to victory to save the points, but instead received encouragement from Gibbs.

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There are two empty places left in the championship standings, which will be determined next week in the final of the third round of the playoffs. Bell and Larson are above the elimination line, but neither is that comfortable.

“I would prefer to have a better points lead going into next weekend, but we'll regroup and focus on Martinsville,” said Larson, who is mired in a 22-race losing streak dating back to May.

Bell is 37 points above the cut line, just one point ahead of Larson, while Byron, Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott and Team Penske drivers Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney are below the cut line.

“Plus 37 seems really good, but you expect a bottom four winner, even me, any one of the five of us could win Martinsville,” Bell said. “So plus 37 turns into plus one whenever you have a new winner, and the battle in Martinsville will last all day.”

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Logano and Blaney have won the last three Penske Cup titles together.

The race went into overtime when Chris Buescher was leading with two laps left and Byron spun him from behind and Hocevar pushed him into Buescher. Buescher flipped over the front of the pack and hit the inside wall hard in a single-car accident that sent the race into overtime.

Todd Gilliland finished a career-best second in a Ford for Front Row Motorsports – the team that will join Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing on Tuesday to mediate a federal antitrust lawsuit – while Gibbs was third. Wallace, riding for the 23XI team, was fourth.

Elliott at the beginning of the accident

Elliott's chances of making the final four were hurt when NASCAR's most popular driver died in the first crash of the race.

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Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR champion, was already below the relegation line when he was involved in an early, eight-car crash 52 laps into the race. He sent the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the garage for repairs and left Elliott last among the 40 cars.

Elliott now heads to Martinsville Speedway in a must-win situation to advance to the title-deciding finale in Phoenix for the first time since 2022.

“It is what it is, I can’t change it now,” Elliott said. “Everybody’s just looking at Martinsville and trying to go up there and get a win.”

Elliott has won Martinsville once before in 2020, parlaying that win into his only Cup title.

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The final four-championship race is next Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, where Blaney won last year to advance to the title-deciding playoff finale.

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