NASCAR News: Ty Gibbs sends message after Spiregate lawsuit revelations

Ty Gibbs sent a not-so-subtle message on Sunday at Phoenix, after finishing fourth for the second NASCAR Cup Series race in a row.

Gibbs got caught up in the 'Spiregate' controversy early this season, when former competition chief Chris Gabehart claimed in legal filings that the grandson of the Joe Gibbs Racing owner was 'managed directly by [team owner] Coach Gibbs'.

Gabehart intimated that Gibbs, who has still never won a Cup Series race in 112 attempts with JGR, was managed differently to the team's other drivers and not held accountable.

He said: “It was my view that the No. 54 car should be managed and held accountable in the same manner as the organization’s other cars. Instead, the No. 54 car was managed directly by Coach Gibbs and everyone in the organization knew it."

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Gibbs: Really happy with my team

Gibbs sent a barely veiled message through the media after finishing fourth on Sunday, going out of his way to insist 'everyone believes in me'.

"Yeah, we were really good today," he said. "I don’t know. That’s unfortunate. But we’ll keep rolling. I think I could have done some things better there. Yeah, unfortunate there. But very happy with my team. All the guys, I’m with the right guys. That makes a difference. So we’re running good because of that. It shows.

"Really happy with my team, everybody has done a great job, everybody believes in me, we all believe in each other. Happy with that.

"Thank you to ampm. Car looks great. It’s so rubbered up you can’t even see the number. Very happy with today and how everything went. Congrats to the 12, they were really fast. I’ll keep working, see where I can do better.

"I thought the show was pretty cool. I had a lot of fun. It kind of sucks I didn’t win, but we had a lot of fun racing out there. It probably looked cool. We’ll keep rolling. Thank you to the man above, all my guys that believe in me, I really appreciate that."