Second-Place Finish for Gibbs at Pocono
No. 54 Toyota GR Supra Comes Up Just Short at the Tricky Triangle
LONG POND, Pa. (July 23, 2022) – Ty Gibbs finished runner-up in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway. Gibbs challenged race-winner Noah Gragson in the closing laps of Saturday’s race but came up just short to earn a second-place result in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota GR Supra.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Pocono Raceway
Race 19 of 33 – 225 miles, 90 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Noah Gragson*
2nd, TY GIBBS
3rd, Josh Berry*
4th, AJ Allmendinger*
5th, Sheldon Creed*
17th, BRANDON JONES
30th, TIMMY HILL
31st, SAMMY SMITH
35th, SANTINO FERRUCCI
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TY GIBBS, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
You seemed upset when you got out of the car. Were you mad at something you did or maybe didn’t do in the final laps racing Noah Gragson?
“It definitely hurt us being on a tire disadvantage. I was so surprised to hang with the 9 (Noah Gragson) when he was on rights. I had a great car, just didn’t put it together. I want to say I felt like on my part I just made some mistakes, but we’ll come back at it next weekend. Thank you to Monster Energy, Sport Clips, Interstate Batteries, our Lord Jesus Christ and thank you to all of the fans for being here.”
How determined were you to keep it clean racing Noah Gragson for the win?
“I just put myself in a bad position there, but I always love racing out here and congratulations to the 9 team.”
Did you get too loose going into the tunnel turn?
“Yeah, you know we both went in there side-by-side and I just lost my side force and got loose under him, but that’s racing. I put myself in that position, but I feel like I definitely have to look back and see what other options I had. I just want to say thank you to my team and everybody who is a part of this deal. I had a great time.”
Did you feel like you had a car that could get the win today?
“We had a very fast Monster Energy Toyota Supra. Just made some mistakes there and I felt like that was my fault. We were on a tire disadvantage, which was kind of unbelievable that we still hung with the 9 (Noah Gragson). That shows how fast our Toyota Supra was. Thank you to Monster Energy, Sport Clips and Interstate Batteries.”
SANTINO FERRUCCI, No. 26 Freedom Alliance Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 35th
What happened to take you out of the race early?
“I don’t know. We were just restarting. We had a really fast car. Sam Hunt and Toyota and our Freedom Alliance car was just really, really good. I got really up close to Cole (Custer) just trying to understand – being part-time it’s so hard to judge the air off the side of the cars. I just made a mistake, man. I just got a little off the bottom and I got really close to him and the side force kind of went and I started to lose the rear. Our car actually hasn’t been loose all day. It’s just a shame for everybody else because there were a lot of cars caught up in that just because we were not spaced out yet. I’m really, really bummed for the Freedom Alliance boys and Toyota and all of our crew. We qualified 11th in my first-ever qualifying and we’ve been racing right there all day. Just not how I wanted my home race to go.”
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