- Ty Gibbs claimed his first Cup win by holding on through the race on worn-out tires.
- Old tires ruled the day at Bristol once again, as the race saw minimal tire wear.
- The standings, though, have been completely shaken up after the Bristol race.
What began as a day for Ryan Blaney, then swung toward Kyle Larson, ended with Ty Gibbs in Victory Lane at Bristol Motor Speedway. Gibbs, who had waited 131 starts and four years, cracked through for his first Cup win.
Despite titles in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the ARCA Series, he has long faced backlash for nepotism, owing to his grandfather, Joe Gibbs, being the team owner, through whom Ty Gibbs reached the Cup level. But with the Bristol result, he made his case on the track.
By taking the win at Bristol, Gibbs joined a list that includes Rusty Wallace, Ernie Irvan, Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch, and Dale Earnhardt Sr., all of whom bagged their first Cup win at the same venue.
As predicted, old tyres held the line and delivered Gibbs the win
The whole scene in the Cup race on Sunday played quite a lot like Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts race, when Rodney Childers kept Connor Zilisch out and put track position with worn-out tires. The call carried the 19-year-old to the win over Larson. On Sunday, the same gamble paid off for Gibbs.
Larson swept both stages, as he had a day earlier, after Blaney took the lead initially after starting from the pole. A run of cautions, restarts, and calls on the pit box mixed up the pack, and Gibbs took charge over the final 23 laps. The call to stay out after Chase Elliott spun with 23 laps to go handed Gibbs the lead. He then held off Blaney and Larson, who were both on fresher tires.
Before Elliott’s spin, Gibbs had been closing on Blaney, who had taken the lead from stage-sweeping Larson after recovering from two slow stops in the closing stage.
Larson and Blaney controlled large stretches of the race, with the HMS driver leading 284 laps and Blaney 190. Both came to pit road for tires when 13 cars remained on the lead lap. The first- and third-running cars were among the few to pit, Larson for two tires and Blaney for four.
Larson beat Blaney off pit road, leading to a late duel between old tires and new. Both drivers drove back to the front to take on Gibbs and Tyler Reddick.
With six laps to go, Blaney was side by side with Gibbs when Riley Herbst hit the wall after a spin triggered by Kyle Busch while running 21st. The caution forced overtime, and Gibbs chose the top lane, sending Blaney to the bottom. On the restart, Gibbs got the jump and held firm up high, fending off two champions to seal his first Cup win in the third full season with his grandfather’s team.
And eventually, Gibbs beat Blaney to the line by 0.055 seconds, the closest margin at Bristol since 1991, according to NASCAR Insights. Larson came home P3, followed by Reddick and Chase Briscoe. Todd Gilliland posted his best finish of the year in sixth, ahead of Joey Logano, Ryan Preece, Denny Hamlin, and Carson Hocevar, who rounded out the top 10.
On how the older tires held on in overtime, Gibbs said, “Well, I watched Reddick bomb it up top and almost passed me. I made sure I had to get up there next time. Obviously, we had another restart. I just stuck it up top and hammered down from there. He had hammered the top and had a lot of grip still, which is surprising because it didn’t look like it at all. I just stuck the top and hammered down from there.”
However, he pointed to the closing laps more than the result, mentioning the fight with Blaney and Larson and the show for the crowd. In his post-race media session, he said,
“Ryan and Kyle, I have a ton of respect for them. To be able to race them is awesome. Honestly, I was just happy that the race was sick at the end, and we were all sliding around and racing for the win. I think that was super cool. Hopefully, it put on a great show for the fans. Super cool. I’ve watched those guys a lot of my life in NASCAR. To race with them is awesome, it’s an honor.”
Speaking to Fox Sports, Gibbs added, “Honestly, I didn’t really know care if I was going to win or not. I thought the race was awesome. I thought we were all put on. The race was great. I feel like it’s been like us the whole year, so I really appreciate always racing Ryan Blaney and Kyle, too. Those guys always run me really well. We all run really good together and hard, so hopefully we put on a great show for the fans.”
Bristol chaos shook up standings. Here’s how the points table just flipped overnight
After Gibbs survived on old tires to outpace Blaney and Larson, Joe Gibb’s grandson managed to get into the top five of the standings table, now at P4, gained two spots after his win, and stands 105 points behind the leader, Tyler Reddick, with 386 points.
Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin stayed in the spots as they were after their P2 and P9 finishes, respectively.
Chase Elliott, however, dropped by a spot as he had to vacate his P4 spot for Gibbs, and now the HMS driver stands at P5 with 264 points.
Meanwhile, William Byron, who stood on P5 ahead of the Bristol race, dropped down by two spots to stand at P7, after he finished the race in P30.
Kyle Larson stood at P9 ahead of the race, but after finishing P3 in the race and gaining 54 points at Bristol by winning both stages, Larson jumped three spots ahead and now stands at P6.
Here’s the full driver standings table after the Bristol race:
| Rank | Driver | Points | Notes |
| 1 | Tyler Reddick | 386 | Current Points Leader (4 Wins) |
| 2 | Ryan Blaney | 324 | 62 points behind leader |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | 300 | |
| 4 | Ty Gibbs | 281 | Winner at Bristol (First Career Win) |
| 5 | Chase Elliott | 264 | |
| 6 | Kyle Larson | 260 | |
| 7 | William Byron | 245 | |
| 8 | Bubba Wallace | 236 | |
| 9 | Christopher Bell | 231 | |
| 10 | Chris Buescher | 230 | |
| 11 | Brad Keselowski | 229 | |
| 12 | Joey Logano | 218 | |
| 13 | Carson Hocevar | 209 | |
| 14 | Ryan Preece | 209 | |
| 15 | Daniel Suarez | 192 | |
| 16 | Shane van Gisbergen | 177 | Holding the final playoff spot by 1 pt |
| 17 | Chase Briscoe | 176 | First driver outside the “Cutline” |
| 18 | Austin Cindric | 172 | |
| 19 | Michael McDowell | 171 | |
| 20 | AJ Allmendinger | 156 | |
| 21 | Ross Chastain | 153 | |
| 22 | Zane Smith | 144 | |
| 23 | Erik Jones | 133 | |
| 24 | Kyle Busch | 131 | |
| 25 | Josh Berry | 128 | |
| 26 | Todd Gilliland | 127 | |
| 27 | Austin Dillon | 124 | |
| 28 | John Hunter Nemechek | 111 | |
| 29 | Riley Herbst | 109 | |
| 30 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 107 | |
| 31 | Noah Gragson | 104 | |
| 32 | Ty Dillon | 95 | |
| 33 | Connor Zilisch | 84 | |
| 34 | Cole Custer | 76 | |
| 35 | Cody Ware | 64 | |
| 36 | Alex Bowman | 24 |
