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Ty Gibbs And Sam Mayer Fight On Pit Road At Martinsville Speedway

by Hunter Thomas April 9, 2022 0 comments

RIDGEWAY, Va. – Punches were thrown between Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer on pit road following contact in the final turn of Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

On the final lap of the Call 811 Before You Dig 250 Powered by Call811.com, Brandon Jones dove below Ty Gibbs to make the race-winning pass. The move forced Gibbs to compete on the high lane of the track, and as the field entered Turn 4 for the final time, Sam Mayer and AJ Allmendinger forced three-wide with Gibbs. Mayer took the middle lane and made contact with Gibbs who had lost momentum.

Mayer finished fifth and Gibbs went from second, all the way back to finish eighth in just the final corner. The two drivers were fighting for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus, which was ultimately won by AJ Allmendinger who came home in third. On the cool down lap, Gibbs rammed the back of Mayer’s car. The contact was so hard that it buckled the front end of Gibbs’ No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota.

On pit road following the checkered flag, Gibbs approached Mayer and got in his face. As Mayer was taking his helmet off, Gibbs swung at Mayer’s body. Gibbs walked away, and Mayer pursued. The two drivers pushed each other, and each shove gradually got stronger. With his helmet still on, Gibbs began punching Mayer, who didn’t have his helmet on, in the face. NASCAR officials then stepped in and stopped the two drivers from fighting.

“I tried to talk to him and then he got up in my face and at that point you have to start fighting,” Gibbs said. “We got put in a bad position there and the only thing I’m mad about is that the 1 (Mayer) didn’t have anything or wasn’t going to get past the 16 (AJ Allmendinger) there and then I got hit in the left rear. It’s just frustrating and I got drove in the fence again, but I was on the other side of it last week. It’s just part of it.”

Last weekend at Richmond, Gibbs moved his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, John Hunter Nemechek out of the way to capture the win, and this weekend, he was on the receiving end of a last-lap bump.

Following the fight, Mayer said, “He walked over to me. He made the first move. I wasn’t going to say anything because I didn’t do anything wrong. All I did is put the bumper to him like he has been doing for the last couple of weeks to everybody, and obviously, he’s really one sided. But that’s okay, I’m just going to keep my head down and do my own thing and move forward.”

Mayer’s left eyelid was cut open and injured following the fight. NASCAR journalist, Noah Lewis tweeted that a NASCAR official had to be placed on a stretcher following the fight as well.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will move on from the Virginia short tracks and head to Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, April 23 for the Ag-Pro 300. Live coverage will broadcast on FOX and MRN at 4 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images