Photo courtesy of Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Ahead of this weekend’s NASCAR championship races at Phoenix Raceway, all 12 drivers seeking a title in their respective series participated in Championship 4 Media Day at the Phoenix Convention Center Thursday.
The Xfinity Series title-eligible drivers took center stage to kick off Thursday’s availabilities and the war of words continued in the fallout of Ty Gibbs’ wreck of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brandon Jones in the final lap of last Saturday’s penultimate Xfinity race of the season.
Noah Gragson, who will compete against Gibbs for the Xfinity title Saturday, did not lament words on his rival.
“I’m just voicing my opinion. I don’t like him,” Gragson said. “Just speaking what everybody doesn’t want to say but they feel it.”
Gragson, a winner of eight races in 2022, has had a fair share of run-ins with the driver of the No. 54 JGR Toyota, including a thrilling battle to the checkered flag at Pocono Raceway and a crash at Bristol Motor Speedway that knocked Gibbs out of the race.
With Gibbs feeling the weight of his actions from last weekend, the 20-year-old was apologetic Thursday about the situation.
“We’re [Joe Gibbs Racing] all one big family so for me to kind of break that apart for my selfish actions..it really hurts me because I grew up there and it’s not cool. It’s just hard,” Gibbs said.
“My actions put myself in this position so I just have to learn from it and move on.”
Joining Gibbs and Gragson in the hunt for the Xfinity championship are Gragson’s JR Motorsports teammates Josh Berry and Justin Allgaier.
The Xfinity championship race at Phoenix Raceway is scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. ET (USA Network, NBC Sports App/Live, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
