{"id":41014,"date":"2022-11-03T15:14:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T20:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=41014"},"modified":"2022-11-04T22:43:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T03:43:31","slug":"ty-gibbs-arrives-in-phoenix-apologetic-but-focused-on-a-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/03\/ty-gibbs-arrives-in-phoenix-apologetic-but-focused-on-a-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Ty Gibbs arrives in Phoenix apologetic but focused on a title"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service <\/em><\/p>\n

PHOENIX, Ariz. \u2013 From the look on his face to his body language, Ty Gibbs knew that Thursday\u2019s Championship 4 Media Day in Phoenix was going to be a test of resolve and contrition. And from the very first question from reporters to the very first answer he offered, Gibbs was resolute in his apology saying, \u201cselfish actions\u201d and \u201cbeing caught in the moment\u201d led to his highly criticized racing style last week.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ty Gibbs, driver of the #54 Monster Energy Toyota, speaks to the media during the NASCAR Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway on November 03, 2022 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Gibbs fully concedes, wrecking his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brandon Jones for the victory in last weekend\u2019s championship field-setting race at Martinsville, Va. was not a \u201cgood look\u201d and it had very real consequences for his family\u2019s team. Jones was leading the race at the time Gibbs hit him from behind with less than a lap remaining and drove by for the win \u2013 acknowledging Thursday that he understood the situation at the time, \u201cI knew he (Jones) had to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy actions put myself in this position and I just have to learn from it and move on, it\u2019s just hard,” said the 20-year-old Gibbs, who will vie for his first NASCAR national series title against three JR Motorsports drivers – Noah Gragson, Josh Berry and Justin Allgaier – in Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race (6 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ty Gibbs, driver of the #54 Monster Energy Toyota, speaks to the media during the NASCAR Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway on November 03, 2022 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Had Jones won the race last week, it would have been his ticket into the Championship 4 pitting a pair of JRM Chevrolets against a pair of JGR Toyotas. Now Gibbs \u2013 a six-time winner – will have to rise to the occasion representing his team on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing is at JGR, we are all one big family and for me to kind of break that apart for my selfish actions really hurts me because I kinda grew up there,” Gibbs said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not cool. These guys work so hard the whole year and it\u2019s just hard, it\u2019s a lot.”<\/p>\n

Gibbs would not provide details but said he has spoken to Jones and \u201cI can completely understand where he\u2019s coming from, and I accept it. … I have to face the fact I made a mistake and have to work as hard as I can to fix these issues.”<\/p>\n

Gibbs said he watched the television race highlights late last Saturday and that \u201cit does affect me\u201d watching the replay of a move he wishes he hadn\u2019t made – and also hearing the loud and negative fan reaction when he emerged from this car.<\/p>\n

Gragson, who has a season-high \u2013 and career best – eight race wins in 2022, was candid in his displeasure over Gibbs\u2019 racing last week. The driver of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet said, \u201cI\u2019m just over it,” about Gibb\u2019s racing style.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just sick and tired of the, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m trying to learn\u2019 deal,” Gragson said. \u201cIt\u2019s been two years. \u2026 I think all of us are definitely over being the pinball for him.”<\/p>\n

Gragson brushed off the idea that perhaps Gibbs returns to the track this week a little more mindful. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t care,” said Gragson, who added the two even had a conversation mid-season about Gibbs aggressive tactics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy to me, but it worked out for JRM so now we\u2019ve got a 75 percent chance to win [the championship],” said Gragson, who will move up to the NASCAR Cup Series next season and be replaced next year at JRM by Brandon Jones.<\/p>\n

Gragson won at Phoenix in March. Gibbs best finish in two starts, is runner-up in 2021.<\/p>\n

Gibbs acknowledged the possibility that Jones or someone else in the field perhaps another competitor he\u2019s had a past run-in with may do something to hurt his chances at a race win and the series championship. But Gibbs reiterated, “There\u2019s nothing I can do about that.”<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to transition your mind to that,” Gibbs said, of re-setting and preparing to race for the championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I love racing so much I can transition it pretty easy to my racing side, just because I love it,” Gibbs said. \u201cAnd I feel like that\u2019s a good trait I have but sometimes I make mistakes and have to own up to it and work as hard as I can to fix that as I do racing and studying data.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain NASCAR Wire Service  PHOENIX, Ariz. \u2013 From the look on his face to his body language, Ty Gibbs knew that Thursday\u2019s Championship 4 Media Day in Phoenix was going to be a test of resolve and contrition. And from the very first question from reporters to the very first answer he offered, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":41002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,811],"class_list":["post-41014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-ty-gibbs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/GettyImages-1438714765-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-aFw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41015,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41014\/revisions\/41015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}