BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) 鈥� Outdueling for the first victory of his career, Ty Gibbs made an emphatic and emotional breakthrough Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The win came in the 131st Cup start for the grandson of .
Ty Gibbs also is the son of the late Coy Gibbs, who also helped run his father鈥檚 team 鈥� the day after his son .
Ty Gibbs, 23, moved to the Cup series the next year and had multiple near-misses (runner-up finishes at Darlington in 2024 and Chicago last year) before reaching victory lane in his fourth season.
鈥淭his is one of my best experiences鈥� Joe Gibbs said. 鈥淲hen I think about Coy, he brought Ty up the entire time. I know he鈥檚 probably watching.鈥�
Ty Gibbs interrupted his grandfather鈥檚 postrace interview in the pits with a hug.
鈥淭his is the man right here,鈥� said Ty, whose mother, Heather, also is a co-owner of JGR. 鈥淚鈥檝e never seen somebody work so hard in my life, him and my mom. I come to the shop at 6 a.m. or 7 p.m., and there鈥檚 nobody there, but they are always there. They work their (butts) off. He鈥檚 a great role model. I wouldn鈥檛 be here unless it was for him.鈥�
Gibbs led the final 25 laps at Bristol, inheriting first place under caution on a strategy gamble by staying on track in his No. 54 Toyota while Ryan Blaney pitted from the lead along with Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 284 of 505 laps.
Blaney and Larson both restarted outside the top five, and Gibbs was cruising toward a win before the yellow flew again on the 498th lap to set up the first overtime restart at Bristol in 11 years.
Despite Blaney and Larson having tires that were nearly 100 laps fresher, Gibbs fended off the star drivers on a two-lap shootout to the checkered flag.
鈥淗onestly, I didn鈥檛 really know or care if I was going to win or not,鈥� Gibbs said. 鈥淚 thought the race was awesome. I really appreciate always racing Ryan Blaney and Kyle, too. Those guys always run me really well.鈥�
Blaney, who started , finished second after leading 190 laps in the No. 12 Ford.
鈥淵eah, great battle for sure,鈥� he said. 鈥� I fought a lot of different cars. Gave it my best shot on the last restart. Was close but just couldn鈥檛 get it done.鈥�
Larson, who won the first two stages, finished third and remained winless in the past 32 races with his No. 5 Chevrolet.
The Toyotas of Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top five.
鈥淪uper happy for Ty,鈥� Briscoe said of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a long time coming. To do it the way he did it, on old tires, to beat the two guys that dominated all day long, that was impressive. Just super happy for him and the whole family.鈥�
Gibbs became the sixth NASCAR driver to earn his first Cup victory at Bristol, joining Dale Earnhardt (1979), Rusty Wallace (1986), Ernie Irvan (1990), Elliott Sadler (2001) and Kurt Busch (2002).
鈥淚t鈥檚 awesome to be with great people,鈥� the younger Gibbs said. 鈥淭o be in this position is great. I鈥檇 love for my father to have seen this. I know he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well. Yeah, it was a great day for us. This is our family, so it鈥檚 just such a great deal.鈥�
Hendrick woes
While Larson excelled at the front, two of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates were struggling mightily.
William Byron started from the rear because of unapproved adjustments to his No. 24 Chevrolet, which had steering problems in practice and qualifying Saturday. Byron, who has led at every active track but Bristol, was off the pace from the start and finished five laps down.
, Alex Bowman started 27th and finished last after being involved in a multicar crash started by Shane van Gisbergen.
鈥淚 was fine, just a frustrating day,鈥� Bowman said. 鈥淭hought we were OK in practice and then obviously qualified bad and then just really struggled with the handling today. Bummer. Hate that we didn鈥檛 get a chance to work on it and make it better and finish the race, but it鈥檚 kind of outside our control. When you run that bad, stuff can happen, and it happened to us.鈥�
Up next
The NASCAR Cup Series will race April 19 at Kansas Speedway, the first of three consecutive tracks 1.5 miles and longer. Hendrick Motorsports has won three of the past four races at Kansas winning last year at the oval in Kansas City, Kansas.
___
AP auto racing:
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
