In a retaliatory action taken during the Last Chance Race on Sunday for the Cook Out Clash, Ty Gibbs ramped off the side of Justin Haley under caution.
As in, the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was literally pointed towards the moon.
Gibbs, for his part, said he didn’t mean to launch and just wanted to door slam Haley.
“I don’t know,” Gibbs said, via The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck. “I just had a little left front damage and gave him a little tap but didn’t mean to make it that big.”
NASCAR’s Cup Series managing director Brad Moran intends to have a conversation with Gibbs but did not suggest a penalty stemming from the non-points exhibition race at a track known for extracurricular theatrics.
“We know it’s a tough place, and there’s gonna be some aggression and some good short-track racing, which is what we wanted. But I’ll be having a discussion with Ty before we go on the track in Daytona and just get his take on what happened and make sure we’re clear on what we need from that point moving forward.”
Teammate Denny Hamlin shared a hauler with Gibbs over the weekend and said on his Actions Detrimental podcast on Monday that the reaction surprised him … albeit with a caveat.
It’s so hard to be mentally tough in the moments you get bounced around and you feel like well, I gotta show I’m not gonna take it, so do something back,” Hamlin said. “It’s almost like the NFL where a personal foul — someone shoves you, next thing you know you push them in the face, and you get the flag. Maybe find a different way to get back at them. Certainly, didn’t love it, didn’t look great. It just happened to be weird how the tires rolled over each other which made his car launch there, but it looked worse than it actually was.
“I was right there when it happened. He didn’t have a whole lot of speed, I think it’s just the tires rolled right over each other, and it caused the launch. But still, it’s something that NASCAR isn’t gonna love or anything like that. Again, he’s expecting to take that next step and be a race winner and a playoff guy. These moments, it’s really hard to not let things get to you and he’s still a really young guy trying to find his way. He’ll figure it out.”
