November 5, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Will the Xfinity Series contenders play nice at Phoenix?

AVONDALE, Ariz.--Will the Championship 4 Xfinity Series drivers race with the same respect and decorum as their Camping World Truck Series counterparts raced on Friday night?

After two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates locked horns last weekend at Martinsville Speedway—with Ty Gibbs knocking Brandon Jones out of his way and effectively out of contention—the 20-year-old showed the lengths he would take to win.

On Saturday, Gibbs will start from the pole for the Xfinity Series Championship Race. Entering the weekend, Gibbs expressed remorse for his behavior. Whether his actions match his words will be on full display at Phoenix Raceway.

“Sometimes NASCAR racing is not all clean, there’s some bumping and banging,” Gibbs said. “I just want to be able to race respectfully and win. It comes down to me making the decisions and learning from the mistakes I’ve made.”

Gibbs’ behavior would not be tolerated at JR Motorsports. And with three of the title contenders hailing from JRM, there would certainly be hell to pay if one driver took out another.

“I think he used the word “furious” to describe how he would be about something like that,” Josh Berry said of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s response. “That’s respect. And that’s a credit to our ownership group at JRM motorsports. They have set the precedent that that’s not how we’re going to operate. They create a great family atmosphere—at least that’s how I feel. I have too much respect for our management to put them in the position like what happened last Saturday.”

Still, Berry, who raced with Gibbs in Late Models, doesn’t entirely blame the 20-year-old for what occurred at Martinsville.

“I’ve raced long enough to know that there are people with radios, there’s people watching the race, there are people that could have given him the advice to help him navigate that situation better. Be proactive instead of reactive.

“They’re all reactive this week, but something should have been said Saturday night. We all saw it coming. The good part is it really doesn’t concern me.”

Hopefully, if there’s retribution coming during the race, it won’t affect the contenders. Noah Gragson believes the best strategy is to “race drivers the same way they race you.”

“You race Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry and the rest of the competitors that race you hard and clean every week—which is almost all of them except one or two—with the mindset that we’re going to race like men,” Gragson said. “We’re going to race hard, we’re going to race clean and we’re going to do it right.

“The other ones, we know the situation. We know what they’re going to do. And you can’t let your guard down around them. You just got to know who you’re racing.”

Like his veteran teammate Justin Allgaier, Gragson has been a title contender at Phoenix in the past. And he’s extremely confident regarding his chances.

“We’re obviously, I would say, the top dog coming into this weekend,” Gragson said. “We didn’t get here by accident. We have won a lot. We’ve earned our way into the final four. It’s going to be exciting. It’s definitely a privilege to be part of this group of three-and-a-half men. And just really excited to race for the championship.”