BRISTOL, Tenn. – Ty Gibbs earned his first NASCAR Cup Series win in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday after surviving an overtime finish and beating Ryan Blaney by 0.055 seconds.

It took Gibbs 131 starts to reach Victory Lane in NASCAR’s top series, and he did so by holding Ryan Blaney at bay in the closest margin of victory at Bristol Motor Speedway since April 1991.

“It’s awesome,” Gibbs said. “It’s awesome to be with great people. To be in this position is great. I’d love for my father to have seen this. I knew he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well. It was great day for us. My boys didn’t give up. Pit crew is just amazing. This is our family. It’s been great. So it’s just such great deal.

“Very honored to be in this situation. Thank you for Monster Energy. Been with me my whole career. Mitch Covington, Dave Gowland, Elton, everybody a part of it. They’ve been with me since I was a kid. I really appreciate this.”

Gibbs started fifth; however, he didn’t score points in Stage 1 but finished seventh in Stage 2. Gibbs then prevailed by leading the final 25 laps. The win marks his fifth top-five finish of the season. Following the race, Gibbs drove his mother to Victory Lane, and team owner, Joe Gibbs spoke about how special the win was for the family

“Is one of my best experiences,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “Honestly when Denny (Hamlin) won, honoring J.D.’s life, was such a huge deal.

“When I think about Coy (Gibbs), he brought Ty up the entire time. I know he’s probably watching. So I just want to thank so many people. It starts with God. He’s blessed us and our family. Just really, really can’t say enough.”

Blaney finished second in the Team Penske No. 12 Discount Tire Ford. Blaney had a very strong car throughout the race as he led 190 laps. Prior to the final caution of the day, Blaney was battling Gibbs hard for the race lead, and then on the restart, he just couldn’t complete the race-winning pass and lost by mere feet.

“I got a good restart,” Blaney said. “I thought I got a really good restart. I just got done talking about the rubber clumps on the bottom. It was really hard to hit it right and I got a decent first lap. I didn’t get a great (Turns) One and Two the last lap and it didn’t kind of let me be even with Ty. I got a really good (Turns) Three and Four the last lap, it just wasn’t quite enough. I’m not gonna throttle up and destroy somebody. I thought I got a pretty good restart, I just wish I would have maybe got a better lap, but it was so hard to do. It was easy to miss and I missed it. 

“Honestly, I look back at where I lost the race was before the last yellow I slipped into (Turn) Three and was up the track when I was side-by-side with Ty and that really hurt us. It was a little too late.”

Kyle Larson finished third, followed by Tyler Reddick who bounced back from an eventful day and Chase Briscoe. Rounding out the top-10 was Todd Gilliland who started in 35^th, Joey Logano, Ryan Preece, Denny Hamlin and Carson Hocevar.

Larson swept Stages 1 and 2, and he also led a race high of 284 laps. There were 13 lead changes among four drivers.

The caution came out on nine occasions for 72 laps. Seven cautions were for accidents.

On lap 63, contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sent Brad Keselowski around in Turn 2.

On Lap 144, Christopher Bell, who was sent to the back for speeding on pit road bounced off the wall in Turn 4 and spun in Turn 2.

Shane van Gisbergen spun on Lap 161, collecting Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek and Gilliland.

Tempers boiled over on Lap 313, when Riley Herbst sent Kyle Busch around on the frontstretch. Busch repaid the favor with two laps to go to send the race into NASCAR Overtime.

The NASCAR Cup Series will visit Kansas Speedway on Sunday, April 19, for the AdventHealth 400. Live coverage will broadcast on FOX at 2 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com