Ty Gibbs led 84 laps on Saturday in the Busch Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum but the night ended with a disagreement with Joey Logano over why neither of them ultimately contended for the win.
On the decisive restart, which came with 11 laps to go, leader Gibbs drifted up into Logano in the first corner and it allowed Denny Hamlin to sneak by and ultimately emerge victorious in the preseason exhibition.
“It just was unfortunate,” Gibbs told Frontstretch after the race. “I guess I got to get better at restarts. My team brought me a great car, as we saw, and they did a great job. It was a great showing.”
Logano walked over to the Gibbs pit area behind the Coliseum after the race. The 21-year-old tried to motion his elder peer into the hauler but the two-time champion jumped right into his talking points.
“I ran him up [the track], but if you go back and look at the replay the 12 [of Blaney] kind of chucks him out of the way, too,” Gibbs told FOX Sports after the race. “It is just hard racing there at the end. This place is really hard to get your tires warm once the caution comes out — as you could see, everyone was sliding around, so I just got in there deep and washed up into him.
“We just got all tangled up after that.”
The incident was the continuation of an incident in November at Martinsville Speedway when Logano sent Gibbs around.
That was brought up in the exchange too. Gibbs also said he did the same thing that was done to him earlier in the race.
Logano said he didn’t send Gibbs into the wall. Gibbs said he’s seen this kind of driving from Logano his whole life.
“Keep watching,” Logano retorted before walking off.
The two also had an exchange in July after the conclusion of the race at the Chicago Street Course.
Gibbs believes he had better long run speed but just needed to execute better in that position. Even after Hamlin got by, Gibbs drove right back up to his teammate but couldn’t complete the pass.
“We were definitely faster at the time,” Gibbs said. “He [Hamlin] had left-front lock-up issues, so did I. I think that’s something on our side as an organization with the left-fronts. But I just overdrove it trying to get to him and kind of messed up and lost position.”
That’s how he found himself in position to get spun on the final lap of regulation, when he stacked up in front of Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace. Gibbs went around when Wallace shoved Larson into Gibbs. It’s actually part of why Larson hit Wallace and sent him around on the final lap.
All told, Gibbs leaves Los Angeles feeling pretty optimistic considering that the speed he showed in the second half manifested itself in some way at the Coliseum on Saturday.
“We started where we left off last year,” Gibbs said. “It was a good showing for us. Our guys did a great job. That experience helps, and we’ll just keep going.”
Logano said that Gibbs that went too far.
“Ah he just used me up, all the way to the wall,” Logano said. “There’s a fine line of kind pushing each other up a little bit and racing for the win and using me up with the history he has with me. Not a good idea for him.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.