Ty Gibbs left Indianapolis Motor Speedway with more than just a solid finish — he walked away with the $1 million prize in NASCAR’s first-ever In-Season Challenge.
Gibbs, driving the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, only needed to finish ahead of Ty Dillon in the final showdown of the five-race bracket format. He did exactly that, crossing the line in 21st place while Dillon came home 28th, three laps down after suffering damage in a mid-race incident.
“Super cool. Very honored to be in this position,” Gibbs said. “Thank you to all of NASCAR and TNT Sports for allowing us to be able to do this. It’s awesome to win this and super cool to be in this position.”
The sixth-seeded Gibbs celebrated on the famous yard of bricks under the IMS pagoda, tossing mock dollar bills into the crowd and holding a black-and-gold trophy, a ring, and a custom AEW wrestling belt to mark the occasion.
“A million bucks is a lot of money,” Gibbs said during his post-race interview with TNT Sports. “I’m going to give $10,000 to wherever Ty Dillon wants to choose to give to charity.”
Dillon, the lowest seed in the tournament, had been the surprise of the format. He knocked out top-seeded Denny Hamlin at EchoPark Speedway when a multi-car crash took out the favourites. He then beat Brad Keselowski in Chicago after Keselowski was caught in another wreck. In Sonoma, Dillon muscled past Alex Bowman with a late-race move to reach the semifinals, then advanced past John Hunter Nemechek at Dover thanks to a lucky free pass during a late caution.
But the magic ran out at Indianapolis. On a restart at Lap 56, Josh Berry appeared to miss a shift, causing a stack-up that damaged multiple cars, including Dillon’s No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. The front-end damage seriously hindered his speed.
“Disappointing, obviously, but things like that happen,” Dillon said. “You can’t predict everything. I think that’s what’s been so cool about this In-Season Challenge for everybody. I just hate that we didn’t get to give him a run for it there. I don’t think they would say as a team they had their best day either. And I think if all things are equal and we don’t knock the nose off on that restart, [we’re] probably sitting in a good position, put a lot of pressure on him and race him out pretty solid.”
Dillon explained that the damage pinched the air ducts, which cut engine performance, especially on Indy’s long straightaways.
Despite the disappointment, he remained upbeat about the opportunity and the exposure the tournament run brought to his team.
“It’s painful right now that we didn’t win the whole thing,” Dillon said. “But it definitely doesn’t overshadow how much this whole run has meant for us and our team, our sponsors. We’re grateful, man. It’s a good boost of energy.
“Hopefully we’ll finish out the year strong because of it. I believe in our team and what the future holds. So today was tough, but you know, this run has been really great and I appreciate it.”
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