On NASCAR Inside the Race after Sunday’s Toyota Save/Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, Todd Gordon and Kyle Petty both agreed with NASCAR officials that Ty Gibbs did nothing wrong in the incident on pit road with Brad Keselowski’s tire carrier.
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Gibbs was coming into his pit stall on Lap 52 and passed through the pit stall directly in front of his, that of Brad Keselowski, who was following Gibbs on pit road. But while going through Keselowski’s pit, Gibbs grazed a tire held by Keselowski’s tire changer and nearly hit him as he prepared to service his boss’s car.
A shoving match between crew members from both teams took place after their cars returned to the track. The incident was quickly stopped by NASCAR officials.
Officials reviewed the replays and ruled Gibbs did nothing wrong. No penalties were issued, though NASCAR may revisit the video and hand down penalties by Tuesday.
Keselowski’s team even pleaded their case by presenting overhead video of their pit stall, but NASCAR declined their argument. That was the right call, both Gordon and Petty agreed. Gordon offered a detailed breakdown of the incident.
“I see two cars coming to green flag pit in some of the shortest boxes we’ve got on pit road,” Gordon said. “I always talk about pit crew guys: you’re playing in traffic and that’s where you’re at here.
“One tire carrier has to carry two tires and he’s standing kind of sideways and that leaves his tires out, exposed… Ty comes through, makes a little contact with the outboard tire. It kind of spins the tire carrier’s wrist around and puts him a little behind.
“I think the tire carrier actually could stand to not be so wide, understanding that he’s got the car that’s in the box in front of him coming in right in front of his car. He’s got to make himself a little skinnier so that he isn’t put behind in that situation.
“As most everybody does, the carrier that carries two tires, you’re allowed to have two feet in the box, but you’ve got to be close to the wall. You’ve got to be in a position that’s as close to the wall as you can be but be down in the box. That’s where he was.
“But he was standing looking down pit road and he’s two tires wide, which is half a pit box. And Ty Gibbs is trying to get in and get close to his fueler. The boxes are short, so you’ve got to kind of use up the box behind you to get yourself pointed in the right direction.”
Petty agrees with Gordon, adds his perspective
Petty rightfully said that Gordon “nailed it” with his explanation before Petty gave his two cents.
“When you have this short a pit box, when you have two guys coming in at the same time, coming in nose to tail, pit boxes the way they were, I think this is almost a non-story,” Petty said. “I’m not sure we would have seen any of this happen because this happens on pit road a lot.
“People get bumped, people get moved, people have to adjust. And I think it’s just the timing. It’s the perfect storm here. Ty had to be in his pit box, had to get in straight. When you’ve got a short pit box, the only way to get in your pit box straight and close for fueling and give the tire guys room is to come in the back door, to come in that back line completely straight. And when you see Ty come in, he comes through the 6’s box and into his box straight.
“No, I don’t have an issue with what Ty did. Now, I don’t really have an issue with what the tire carrier did either because he’s a little upset. He should have maybe kept his tire out of the way.”
Petty knows a lot about tire changers: he used to be one on his father Richard’s team before Kyle eventually started driving in NASCAR himself.
“I got hit multiple times in my career as a tire carrier,” Kyle said. “And finally, (Richard Petty’s crew chief Dale) Inman told me, ‘Hey, that driver’s focused on his box. He’s focused on that sign. You stay out of his way.’ And that’s what it kind of boils down to sometimes. It was my job to stay out of that guy’s way.”
The scuffle was a non-story to Petty
And even though there was a post-pit stop scuffle between crew members of both teams, in essence there was no harm, no foul in Petty’s eyes.
“They still had a great pit stop,” Petty said of both teams. “Nobody said anything about the pit stop times or whether it slowed them down because it didn’t seem to. They went right back out in the same position.
“It was just everything that we wanted to talk about was what the guys were doing, pushing and shoving on pit road. And to me, that’s a non-story, too.”
