Noah Gragson regrets harsh words for Ty Gibbs during 2022 Xfinity Series championship battle

June 29, 2024

In recent years, Noah Gragson and Ty Gibbs have been viewed as rivals. This likely has something to do with their battle for the 2022 Xfinity Series championship. This NASCAR season, these two talented young drivers have battled each other almost weekly.

Noah Gragson took four straight wins late in the season. Ty Gibbs finished the year with two straight wins and won the championship. During the pre-race media coverage, Gragson had harsh words for Gibbs.

Gragson called Gibbs a “douchebag” and said he didn’t really like him, then added that he was just saying what the entire garage was thinking.

So how did we get from these comments in fall 2022 to cut the two drivers on pit road after Gibbs won the Xfinity Series pole today in Nashville?

Perhaps a year in the Cup Series helped both drivers overcome their feelings. They were thrown in at the deep end and Noah in particular struggled to keep his head above water. He lost his job before the end of the season.

Gibbs won the 2023 Rookie of the Year award. It didn’t seem like anything was settled between the two, but Gragson has made a lot of progress in his personal life this year, as he said in his media appearance on Saturday.

Noah Gragson and Ty Gibbs will no longer be enemies in 2022

When you’re young and in your early 20s, you say things you don’t mean. Or you say things you mean, but later regret it because you’ve changed your mindset. There’s no doubt that Noah Gragson has changed for the better as a person in the last year.

When I asked Gragson about his relationship with Ty Gibbs, he answered without hesitation.

“Ty and I were friends. Back when he was racing go-karts and newer models and so on,” Gragson explained. “Then when you’re racing for a championship, I don’t care if it’s Ty or my mom or anyone else, I’ll do whatever I can to mentally put myself in the competitor’s shoes.

“I wish I could go back and not say some of the things I said, absolutely. But at the same time, I have a lot of respect for Ty, he’s a great racer, he’s a champion, he’s a hell of a competitor and we’re friends now. I consider him a friend, I appreciate Ty. He’s a good driver too and he’s a good guy. Other than that, when I go to the race track or we’re racing for a championship, I don’t care who you’re racing against. But once we take the race suits off, I consider everyone in the garage my friend.”

Of course I had to ask Gibbs how he felt. Although he was a little less vocal on the subject, he expressed the same opinion as Gragson. The two are friends, they race hard, but they are friends.

“We’re just like normal friends,” Gibbs explained. “I don’t really think about it, I just race and have fun. But yeah, just normal.”

Maybe the rumors that Noah Gragson was being considered for Chase Briscoe’s seat at Joe Gibbs Racing were true? Hard to say. What we do know is that these two drivers view each other very differently than they did a year and a half ago.