The road fight between Ty Gibbs, Sam Mayer after Brandon Jones’ Xfinity victory at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Brandon Jones overcame Ty Gibbs on the final lap of a two-round sprint to the finish line and won the Martinsville Highway on Friday night for the fifth win of his career, and a win. Win started a pit lane brawl when it was over.

In the final restart, following several warnings, Gibbs chose to start in the inner lane and had to outrun Jones, his teammate Joe Gibbs Racing, also inside during the second run. Jones got inside him a few times, then eventually took the top spot while Gibbs got caught up in a mess.

“What a day,” Jones said after climbing out of his car. “I can’t say we could have played it any better. … I ended up having older tires than all those guys.”

As the match ended, Gibbs and longtime rival Sam Mayer, both of whom were racing to win a $100,000 Dash4Cash prize money, appeared on the pit lane. Gibbs was wearing his helmet, while Mayer was not, and when Mayer pushed him, Gibbs threw a punch and they plunged into a melee as the others tried to break it.

“I tried talking to him and he got it all in my face and at that point we had to start fighting,” Gibbs said. “We were in a bad situation there. The only thing I was angry about was [Mayer] nothing. He won’t pass [third-place finisher A.J. Allmendinger] and I just got hit in the back left side. “

However, Gibbs admits, a week ago at Richmond Raceway, it was he who had to apologize to teammate John Hunter Nemechek for pushing him into the final lap to claim the win, who finished third in a streak of seven races. .

Instead of winning Wednesday on Friday night, he finished eighth.

Before the full end, Gibbs showed up normally every time the last few of the 16 yellow flags flew as cars drove behind him. Much of the court then crashed on the first attempt of the two-round overtime sprint to the finish line when Mayer, running second, caused Noah Gragson, third run, to spin, causing a massive pile-up even before the course. start on the first turn. .

It was the final caution of the cold night and yielded a red flag that lasted less than 20 minutes, setting the stage for the movie to come to an end.

Where did Landon Cassill finish in second, the first of four Chevrolets behind Jones’ Toyota as Allmendinger in third – and a $100,000 bonus – followed by Austin Hill and Mayer.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who began his early career on the 0.526-mile oval in his annual foray into the series, started at the back, never competed and finished 11th. .

It was also a tough end for lead scorer Gragson, who ran first for most of the night but was relegated to 20th place after Mayer knocked him out.