Joe Gibbs' star, Max Reaves, has gone from worst to best. But despite a miraculous win, he seems to have polarized fans.

Reaves, who made quite a name for himself in the ARCA series, won the Shore Lunch 250 presented by Dutch Boy at the Elko Speedway. After the victory, he was asked to talk about his day, and this was when he delivered the surprising interview:

"I knew we were going to be the winning car tonight. I knew were were going to be the one to beat. The 28 (Huffman) thought that, too, getting in there and dooring me like that. When he broke, it was karma."

After his engine failed in qualifying, Reaves started at the back of the field, but it didn't keep him from dominating. Having started from 20th place, Reaves improved drastically and then took the lead from polesitter Landon Huffman on Lap 82.

Soon after, however, Huffman overtook him once again and appeared to run away with it. That's when misfortune struck for Huffman. Smoke emerged from the back of his No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet on Lap 152.

Reaves inherited the lead and kept it till the end of the race. Applauding his team's performance, Reaves spoke about the JGR garage in the same interview. Yet, his words about his rival Huffman were what fans focused on.

Fans share their reactions on social media about Max Reaves

When X user Trevor Bailey posted the clip of Reaves' interview, fans began commenting on the post, with one fan opening with, "Funny thing after he kept talking they were just showing clips of him running over Landon 🤣"

The fan referred to the moment at the end of clip, when the broadcast cut to Reaves' on-track battle with Huffman that saw them go head-to-head for the lead.

One fan added, "yikes…" After all, Huffman dominated the race. After regaining the lead after a tough battle with Reaves, he looked like he was running away with it, only to be bogged down by an engine issue.

Another fan wrote, "JGR finds all the toolbags and it makes for excellent content."

And they're not wrong. We've seen the likes of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and now Ty Gibbs have embraced the 'villain' persona in the sport. Now, with Reaves signed on with the team, we could see more of the same.

Perhaps that's why one fan was even happy, adding, "This kid is such a little punk and honestly I hope he ends up making it to Cup just for the drama. Generational villain potential."

One fan said, "O*** can SOMEONE teach this kid how to do an interview… Hes throwing away his career before it even starts." This fan referred to Reaves being just 16 and having started his racing career.

Moreover, this comes on the back of another interview that took the spotlight back in April at Hickory. Bobby Labonte even gave Reaves some advice at the time.

Perhaps that's why another fan urged caution, saying, "I don't get how anyone truly cares. He didn't say anything bad or offensive. 16 year olds say annoying stuff all the time."

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar