The 19-year-old grandson of an NFL legend landed several big punches in an ugly NASCAR brawl
- Ty Gibbs got into a post-race fight with Sam Mayer.
- Gibbs, the grandson of Joe Gibbs, is a rising star in NASCAR.
For the second-straight week, Ty Gibbs was in the middle of controversy, and this time things got ugly.
Gibbs and Sam Meyer were both racing for the win and the $100,000 "Dash 4 Cash" bonus during the 2-lap overtime of the Martinsville Xfinity race on Saturday night. After eventual race-winner Brandon Jones pushed both drivers up the track, the race for the win was seemingly over for both, but the race for the cash was still very much on.
Mayer bumped Gibbs from behind to get past before both got tangled up with a third driver, and neither won the cash.
After the race, Gibbs, the grandson of NFL and NASCAR legend Joe Gibbs, slammed Mayer from behind, and that's when the fireworks started. What started as a lot of yelling turned into an all-out brawl, with Gibbs (in the black helmet) landing several big punches.
Here is what led to the fight as Mayer (1) and Gibbs (54) tried to go three-wide.
After the race, Mayer said it was just a misunderstanding.
"Heat of the moment type stuff," Mayer said. "I think it's more I was just trying to get his attention, and he took it the wrong way, and it just, he just snapped. I mean, that's what I say just happened. Nothing anything horrible, but it's just part of the sport."
Gibbs agreed.
"We kind of shoved a little bit, and I turned away, and when I got grabbed and kind of pulled, that just led up to that moment," Gibbs told Dustin Long of NBC Sports. "I think just build-up, build-up, build-up, and I snapped, and that's just part of it. You know, hopefully, I'll learn from it."
This came one week after the 19-year-old won a race with his own controversial bump during the Richmond Xfinity race.
Gibbs picked up his third win in five races, shoving teammate John Hunter Nemechek out of the way to cross the finish line first.
After that race, Gibbs admitted the move was intentional and conceded that payback is probably coming at some point.
"I definitely deserve one back," Gibbs said. "We're racing for a win. They are hard to come by. So I had to take it ... John Hunter was a little faster. We had a great race. Good for Toyota to finish 1-2. Just got in there deep and had to bump him out of the way up the track."
As they say, "rubbin' is racin'," but in recent weeks, the bumpin' seems to be at an all-time high, and it was only a matter of time before tempers started flarin'.