Ty Gibbs won the Dead on Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday (Oct. 29) as he wrecked his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brandon Jones for the overtime victory.
Sheldon Creed, Riley Herbst, Noah Gragson and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top five, and all three would agree that Jones deserved to be right there with them in the running order instead of his official 23rd-place finish. No short track race is ever clean, but Saturday was a stark reminder of where some believe our sport is heading.
The Winners
JR Motorsports now has three of its four drivers locked into the final round of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs. Gragson and Josh Berry clinched their spots with wins, while Jones’ poor finish allowed Allgaier to make the cut on points. It’s important to note that Jones will be suiting up for JRM next season, too – even more reason for all eyes to turn toward Phoenix.
Nicholas Sanchez and Blaine Perkins survived all the beating and banging that Martinsville had to offer and both earned the first top-1o finishes of their Xfinity careers on Saturday. Sanchez brought the Big Machine Racing No. 48 Chevy home in seventh (in style might I add, but more on that later), while Perkins was able to wheel his ride to 10th.
You want career-best #XfinitySeries finishes? @MartinsvilleSwy has got ’em.
👏👏👏@Nicksanchez080: 7th (first top 10)@BlainePerkins21: 10th (first top 10)@rajahcaruth_: 12th@DerekGriffith12: 15th pic.twitter.com/sTCpC0umb4
— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) October 29, 2022
The Losers
Talk about a nightmare situation for Joe Gibbs Racing. Obviously there is a level of understanding in letting Jones go to JRM, but with two weeks left in the season, the owner’s grandson goes and pulls this stunt.
There’s still a competition meeting to attend this week. And the No. 54 team now has to be expected to put together a championship-level performance after watching Gibbs pull his most bush-league move of the season? I don’t know how any member of the No. 19 team is supposed to finish out this next week with dignity, much less class, and I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t.
Sure, Ty Gibbs won the race, but he didn’t win the war. It will be a miracle if he cleanly makes it through the first stage at Phoenix Raceway. If he had any fans left, a good portion of them are probably gone now, too. And grandpa is in too tough of a situation to not hand him the keys to a Cup ride next year, but we’ll…
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