Picture Credit: Twitter
In not the best of advertisements for the world of sport, two professional racers indulged in an ugly brawl after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Friday. While things can get heated up in the heat of the moment, it should have never escalated into a physical fight between two professionals.
It so happened that in the final lap of the race, Ty Gibbs dramatically lost his lead to Brandon Jones. As a result, he tried a final drive off but this was precisely when Sam Mayer ran into Gibbs from the rear and pushed him up the racetrack which created a logjam for the second position.
Mayer running into Gibbs pushed the latter into the wall. This essentially meant that despite leading a good part of the race, Gibbs was forced to settle for an eighth-place finish. And Gibbs made sure that he made his displeasure known to Mayer once the race got over.
After the checkered flag when both of them had stopped on the pit road, Gibbs made sure to have a face-off with Mayer, exchanging what certainly did not appear to be pleasantries. Later, Gibbs even landed punches on his rival and grabbed Mayer by his head. Others had to intervene to take control of the situation.
Have a look at the video of the fight here:
"I tried to talk to him, and he got all in my face. At that point, we've got to start fighting," Gibbs explained his version of the incident on Fox Sports.
"We got put in a bad position there. The only thing I'm mad about ... He wasn't going to get past the No. 16 there and I just got hit in the left rear. It's just frustrating. I just got drove in the fence at the end," he added.
In perhaps the most unpleasant aftermath of the incident, a NASCAR official was reported injured in the brawl.