Tensions were high on Saturday at the Sunoco GO Rewards 200 at The Glen. The Sam Mayer-Ty Gibbs rivalry was taken to a new level when Mayer spun Gibbs out before taking a win. Gibbs was clearly not happy with the move from his competitor, calling him out after the race.
“I think when you have to race out of desperation like that and you wheel-hop and clean the leader out, I guess you can call it a racing move,” said Gibbs. “I think he has more starts than I do and this is his second win, so congratulations to him on the second win and definitely wish I could’ve gotten my 13th there.”
From Gibbs’ tone alone, you can tell he is not happy with the move Mayer pulled. Gibbs was in first place and completely knocked him out of the race. Mayer going on to get the win himself likely did not help the cause either.
“I’m racing on Sundays,” Gibbs said. “He has more starts and I have more wins.”
Sam Mayer responds to Ty Gibbs, says history had nothing to do with the move
Mayer had the opportunity to respond, saying previous moments with Gibbs had nothing to do with his “racing move.” No matter who had been in the lead, Mayer claims he would have tried to attempt the same thing. The history between the two drivers had nothing to do with it.
“It would be the exact same thing,” Mayer said. “I’m going there for a win. I’m trying to do my best to get in victory lane with my team and my organization. If the same restart happened and he got a better restart than me again, whoever it is, I would try to get to the inside of it as well. Obviously, I wouldn’t try to wreck anybody — including Ty.
“We have a history and everyone looks at that differently and I don’t. I just want to race the race car driver. Definitely, it sucks that it’s him because I don’t want that for anybody. But it’s just part of making mistakes as a young driver. I can only use that excuse so many times and today is one of those days.”
Saturday marked the second career win for Mayer, even if there was some controversy involved. As he mentioned, young drivers do mistakes on the track and he will be able to learn from it moving forward. More than anything else that will come out of the situation, Mayer seems happy to be back in victory lane.
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