Ty Gibbs gets first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Bristol
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
BRISTOL, Tenn.—When Chase Elliott spun to cause the eighth caution in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, driver Ty Gibbs had an emphatic message for crew chief Tyler Allen.
“I don’t want to give up track position – at all,” Gibbs asserted over the team radio.
Allen acquiesced, and Gibbs restarted in the lead on Lap 486. He held that track position through a ninth caution that sent the race to overtime and beat Ryan Blaney to the finish line by 0.055 seconds to claim his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory.
The margin of victory was the closest at Bristol since Rusty Wallace beat Ernie Irvan by one foot in April of 1991.
One of four leaders in the eighth race of the season, Gibbs was out front for only the final 25 laps, as reigning series champion Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney combined to dominate the proceedings before the decisive caution.
But it was Gibbs’ No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that found its way to Victory Lane at the 0.533-mile short track – the first Cup victory for a car numbered 54 since Lennie Pond won the only race of his career in 1979 at Talladega.
After he climbed from the car, Gibbs’ immediate thoughts turned to his father, Coy Gibbs, who passed away the night after Ty won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (then Xfinity Series) championship in 2022.
“Yeah, it’s awesome,” Gibbs said. “It’s awesome to be with great people. To be in this position is great. I’d love for my father to have seen this. I knew he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well.
“Yeah, it was great day for us. My boys didn’t give up. Pit crew is just amazing. This is our family. It’s been great. So it’s just such great deal. Very honored to be in this situation.”
Under the caution that proved decisive, Gibbs, Carson Hocevar, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick stayed out on old tires – an option Allen said he had discussed with Gibbs as they considered possible scenarios during the final stage.
Larson restarted sixth after a two-tire call and Blaney took the green flag in seventh on four new tires.
With the benefit of fresh rubber, Blaney and Larson charged into second and third, with Gibbs holding the lead from the top lane. Gibbs was still in front on Lap 497 of a scheduled 500 when Kyle Busch spun Riley Herbst in payback for an earlier incident to cause the final caution.
Gibbs held his own on the two-lap overtime shootout and narrowly beat Blaney to the finish line, with Larson just 0.229 seconds behind in third.
“Gave it my best shot the last restart,” said Blaney, who started from the pole position, led 190 laps and posted his best career finish in Thunder Valley. “Got a good restart. Was close, but just couldn’t get it done. Proud of the effort by all the (No.) 12 (Team Penske) folks. Gave me a real fast car, fast car in qualifying. Got it better through the race, honestly. Halfway through the race, I thought we got to be the best car, which is really good.
“Gosh, I really wanted to win at Bristol here. I came close. But congrats to Ty. He’s been really close. Nothing is more special than your first Cup win. It’s pretty cool to win at this place.”
Larson led 284 laps and swept the first two stages at Bristol for the third time in his career, but saw his winless streak grow to 32 races, dating to May 11, 2025, at Kansas Speedway.
“Blaney had by far the best car,” Larson acknowledged. “His pit crew just kept putting him behind all day, which really allowed us to lead a lot of laps, get those stage wins. Yeah, so that was good. Happy about all of that. Just knew it was going to be difficult to hold him off. Seemed like every restart, he could just plow right through the field and get to second. Was just really fast.
“Then Ty got strong there the last run, too. That was probably my worst run, I think. We were making some adjustments at that point. I just got a little bit out of the track. Yeah, they were just better than me.”
Reddick finished fourth but saw his series lead over Blaney shrink to 62 points. Chase Briscoe was fifth, followed by Todd Gilliland, who parlayed a two-tire call into his sixth-place finish.
Joey Logano ran seventh, followed by Ryan Preece, Hamlin and Hocevar.
Alex Bowman’s return from a four-race absence because of a vertigo diagnosis came to an early end when Shane van Gisbergen spun in Turn 4 and collected the cars of John Hunter Nemechek and Bowman.
Attempts to repair the car proved futile, and Bowman exited the race in 37th place after completing 163 laps. Even before the accident, though, Bowman had been fighting an ill-handling No. 48 Chevrolet.
“I thought we were OK in practice, but to start the race, we were in trouble,” Bowman said. “It’s a bummer that we didn’t get a chance to work on it. I know (crew chief) Blake (Harris) and this No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team would have liked some pit stops to try and make the car better and get going back in the right direction.
“We were just struggling and then got caught up in somebody else’s mess. I hate it for this team, but we’ll move onto the next one.”
Christopher Bell, who ranked among the pre-race favorites after his Bristol win last fall, finished 27th after a pair of issues in the race’s first half. Bell was penalized for speeding on pit road during the Stage 1 break, knocking him back to 27th place in the order. On the 144th lap, his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scraped the outside retaining wall and later spun to the apron, prompting the race’s third caution period. Further contact on Lap 270 also slowed his progress.
The NASCAR Cup Series’ next race is scheduled for Sunday, April 19, at Kansas (2 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage without issue, confirming Gibbs as the winner. Competition officials indicated that two cars will return to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for further inspection – the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Larson, and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota driven by Reddick.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 8
Race Results for the Food City 500 - Sunday, April 12, 2026
Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN - 0.533 - Mile Concrete
Total Race Length - 505 Laps - 269.165 Miles
Stage 1 Stage 2
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Pos Pos Status Tms Laps
1 5 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 505 7 59 Running 1 25
2 1 12 Ryan Blaney Discount Tire Ford 505 3 2 53 Running 6 190
3 8 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 505 1 1 54 Running 5 284
4 2 45 Tyler Reddick Comparion Insurance Toyota 505 33 Running
5 3 19 Chase Briscoe Lance Toyota 505 4 5 45 Running
6 35 34 Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 505 31 Running
7 20 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 505 8 33 Running
8 17 60 Ryan Preece Kroger/Muscle Milk Ford 505 29 Running
9 11 11 Denny Hamlin National Debt Relief Toyota 505 6 3 41 Running
10 10 77 Carson Hocevar Spectrum Chevrolet 505 7 4 38 Running
11 12 23 Bubba Wallace WWE/Chumba Casino Toyota 505 9 9 30 Running
12 13 7 Daniel Suarez NationsGuard Chevrolet 505 25 Running
13 7 17 Chris Buescher Trimble Ford 505 24 Running
14 21 6 Brad Keselowski Consumer Cellular Ford 505 23 Running
15 22 16 AJ Allmendinger Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 505 22 Running
16 9 2 Austin Cindric Menards/Tarkett Ford 505 10 10 23 Running
17 23 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. NOS Energy Drink Chevrolet 504 20 Running
18 24 3 Austin Dillon 19 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Long Beard XR 504 Running
19 15 38 Zane Smith Aaron's Rent To Own Ford 504 18 Running
20 6 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Fishing Chevrolet 504 17 Running
21 4 35 Riley Herbst Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota 504 8 19 Running
22 18 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 504 15 Running 1 6
23 28 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 503 14 Running
24 19 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 503 13 Running
25 29 8 Kyle Busch BankOZK Chevrolet 503 12 Running
26 16 4 Noah Gragson Long John Silver's Ford 503 11 Running
27 14 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 501 2 19 Running
28 30 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Chevrolet 501 9 Running
29 32 10 Ty Dillon Ohio Logistics Chevrolet 501 8 Running
30 34 24 William Byron Valvoline Chevrolet 500 7 Running
31 36 51 Cody Ware Costa Oil Chevrolet 500 6 Running
32 25 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 490 5 6 16 Running
33 26 88 Connor Zilisch # Roto-Rooter Chevrolet 478 4 Running
34 33 97 Shane Van Gisbergen WeatherTech Chevrolet 335 3 Running
35 31 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 324 2 Running
36 37 66 * Chad Finchum(i) Brian King Roofing Ford 241 0 Steering
37 27 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 163 1 Accident
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 1 Mins, 50 Secs. Average Speed: 88.817 MPH Margin of Victory: .055 Seconds
Stage 1 Top 10: 5, 20, 12, 19, 21, 11, 77, 35, 23, 2
Stage 2 Top 10: 5, 12, 11, 77, 19, 21, 54, 22, 23, 2
Race Comments: Ty Gibbs won the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, his first NASCAR Cup Series victory. Prior to the green flag, the following car dropped to the rear for the reason indicated: No. 24 (unapproved adjustments).
Failed to Qualify: None.
Caution Flags: 9 for 72 laps; Laps: 63-70 (#6, 47 incident turn 2 [88]); 127-136 (Stage 1 Conclusion [88]); 145-151 (#20 spin turn 2 [34]); 161-168 (#97, 48, 42, 34 incident turn 4 [10]); 252-260 (Stage 2 Conclusion [35]); 313-320 (#35, 8, 71, 43 incident fronstretch [38]); 383-390 (#88 incident turn 2 [7]); 478-485 (#9 spin turn 2 [6]); 498-503 (#8, 35 incident turn 1 [2]).
Lead Changes: 12 among 4 drivers; R. Blaney 0; R. Blaney 1-43; K. Larson 44-63; R. Blaney 64; C. Elliott 65-70; K. Larson 71-130; R. Blaney 131; K. Larson 132-254; R. Blaney 255; K. Larson 256-314; R. Blaney 315; K. Larson 316-337; R. Blaney 338-480; T. Gibbs 481-505.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: April 19, 2026 - Kansas Speedway
NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875
CURRENT NASCAT CUP SERIES STANDINGS
Through Sun. April 12, 2026
UNOFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL
1. Tyler Reddick 45 8 0 386 0 0 4 0
2. Ryan Blaney 12 8 0 324 -62 62 1 1
3. Denny Hamlin 11 8 0 300 -86 24 1 2
4. Ty Gibbs 54 8 2 281 -105 19 1 1
5. Chase Elliott 9 8 -1 264 -122 17 1 0
6. Kyle Larson 5 8 3 260 -126 4 0 2
7. William Byron 24 8 -2 245 -141 15 0 1
8. Bubba Wallace 23 8 3 236 -150 9 0 2
9. Christopher Bell 20 8 -2 231 -155 5 0 2
10. Chris Buescher 17 8 0 230 -156 1 0 0
11. Brad Keselowski 6 8 -3 229 -157 1 0 2
12. Joey Logano 22 8 0 218 -168 11 0 0
13. Carson Hocevar 77 8 2 209 -177 9 0 0
14. Ryan Preece 60 8 -1 209 -177 0 0 0
15. Daniel Suarez 7 8 1 192 -194 17 0 0
16. Shane Van Gisbergen 97 8 -2 177 -209 15 0 0
17. Chase Briscoe 19 8 4 176 -210 1 0 0
18. Austin Cindric 2 8 0 172 -214 4 0 1
19. Michael McDowell 71 8 -2 171 -215 1 0 0
20. AJ Allmendinger 16 8 0 156 -230 15 0 0
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