Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Ty Gibbs pit road controversy at Sonoma, voices doubts

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had some interesting things to say about what happened with Ty Gibbs on pit road at the Sonoma Race on Sunday. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt reacted to Gibbs making contact with a crew member of Brad Keselowski‘s team while heading to his pit stall.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. answered the question of Ty Gibbs intentionally hitting the crew member, whose name is Telvin McClurkin. He believes that wasn’t the case, but it could have happened based on what happened with him and Keselowski’s teammate Chris Buescher earlier in the race.

“‘If I can’t get back at Chris Buescher, I can at least show my displeasure to six team.’ Well, that’s pretty devious,” Earnhardt said. “When I got pissed off at a driver, I didn’t start taking it on his teammates if I couldn’t reach him or couldn’t somehow affect his race or get him back. …I just can’t believe that Ty Gibbs’ mind went there because I don’t think it did. But it is possible.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. compares the Ty Gibbs incident to baseball

Earnhardt then compared the incident when a pitcher in baseball throws high and inside to a batter to bush them back off the plate to get back at them for something that happened earlier in the game. “Would say if anything that’s what this is,” Earnhardt stated, “which in baseball is part of the game. No doubt, if this was intentional, if you could prove it to be intentional, he should be penalized, because you can’t use your race car in a dangerous situation around bodies on pit road.”

Gibbs made contact with the tire in the hands of McClurkin as he was heading to his pit stall. After the incident, the teammates of Gibbs and Keselowski began shoving each other. NASCAR reviewed what happened and said Gibbs did nothing wrong. McClukin, who twisted his wrist after the contact was made, did not comment about the incident after the race but did say his wrist was “doing fine,” per Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic.

“I pull in my (pit) box, and by the rules, the first-place car that’s going in, it’s my right of way,” Gibbs told The Athletic. “And that’s the thing with pit crew guys who like to be out there, that’s on them. It’s my right of way. They had an incident that slowed their stop down, so that sucks for them.”