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Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Ty Gibbs dooring Justin Haley, going airborne

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•02/06/25
Ty Gibbs
Peter Casey-Imagn Images

During Sunday’s Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) at Bowman Gray, Ty Gibbs made headlines when he retaliated against Justin Haley, dooring his car and sending his own vehicle almost fully airborne in the process.

Gibbs flew into the passenger side door for Haley and his car got lift, with three tires grabbing air as he did so.

He came down very hard.

“Yeah I was listening to (the) Door, Bumper, Clear (podcast) and (Ryan) Blaney talked about how that probably wasn’t very comfortable for him when he landed because those cars have those rough blocks and it probably slammed down on the ground and probably wasn’t very comfortable,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on the Dale Jr. Download. “But yeah I think he was just trying to swerve and bang doors, which is fine, I don’t care. I guess if it was after the checkered it would be a different story. But I’ll be curious, I guess, if NASCAR thinks they need to (penalize it).”

So far NASCAR has not handed down any rulings, so it seems like Ty Gibbs will be no worse for the wear — physical pain aside — from the incident.

It’s not the first time a driver has attempted to door another driver.

Last year, Bubba Wallace was penalized $50,000 after he slammed into the side of Alex Bowman following the street race at Chicago. That one wasn’t quite the same as the Ty Gibbs incident, though.

“Chicago was after the race was over,” Earnhardt explained. “It’s a little different. But I don’t know. If you want to be ticky tacky, nit-picky.”

Ty Gibbs appeared to be in good shape in the Last Chance Qualifier until Haley spun him out. Then he could never seem to get it going again. He’d ultimately check out early with damage to the car.

For his part, Earnhardt didn’t think any of the contact was egregious.

“That was the thing we were talking about leading in the race. You don’t want to deter that,” Earnhardt said. “Now it can go too far, but I don’t think he took it too far. You’ve got to allow some of that to happen in that environment.”