Cup Series set to Ty a bow on first ever In-Season Challenge

Where the NASCAR Cup Series once had its “Dale and Dale Show” at Daytona in 1993, on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway there will be plenty at stake when the “Ty and Ty Show” takes to the 2.5-mile oval at the legendary Brickyard.
Over 32 years ago, Dale Jarrett beat Dale Earnhardt to win the Great American Race, which ended up being called on the final lap by Ned Jarrett, the winner’s father.
Sunday’s in-race duel between Ty Gibbs and Ty Dillon at the Brickyard 400 will be a pursuit for the $1 million prize to conclude the inaugural In-Season Challenge between 32 drivers.
There will be no tie. The Ty with the better finish gets the prize.
The new midseason chase began at Atlanta last month with Gibbs as the No. 6 seed and Dillon slotted as the final competitor at No. 32. After a one-on-one elimination process ensued over the past four weeks, 160 laps remain to decide which driver will be cashing a bulky check.
Some interesting similarities exist between the two drivers, starting with their famous grandfathers.
In that 1993 Daytona 500 victory, Gibbs’ grandfather, Joe Gibbs, owned the No. 18 Jarrett drove to victory, while holding off Earnhardt’s iconic black No. 3 fielded by Richard Childress, Dillon’s grandfather.
Over 108 races driving his grandfather’s Toyota, 22-year-old Ty Gibbs is winless, while Dillon, 33, also has not snagged a checkered flag and only has two career top-five finishes in 266 starts.
In fact, Dillon has just one career Xfinity Series win in 165 starts, fittingly enough at Indy in 2014 when he passed Kyle Busch on the final restart.
None of that matters much Sunday, when one will claim victory, even if they don’t win the actual race.
“We haven’t been a dominating car, but we’ve been a pain to everyone around us,” said Dillon, who got his No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet back on the lead lap on Lap 401 at Dover last week, finished 20th and edged opponent John Hunter Nemechek by one position to advance.
“You know, I have been the underdog for a long time now, just battling my way to try to get opportunity,” Dillon said. “Eventually you get comfortable in fighting from behind and people underestimating you. It’s hard to say we lucked into this.”
Following a 31st-place finish at Nashville on June 1, Gibbs has had a noticeable resurgence, posting an average finish of 8.0 while leading 60 laps and climbing to 19th in points. He finds himself 52 points behind 16th-place Bubba Wallace.
So how do you win a race within the race? Gibbs is trying to keep it simple.
“I think it’s most important to win the race, and then we can win the million bucks with it,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs qualified sixth and finished 23rd in last season’s Brickyard 400, while Dillon started 22nd and came in 19th.
As for how that $1 million will be distributed, well, that became a topic of discussion Tuesday.
NASCAR clarified that all along the rule had been that it went to the winning team owner, not the driver. That was a shock to many fans who thought it was a winner-take-all situation for the top-finishing wheelman.
Kyle Larson is the Brickyard 400’s defending winner, having survived multiple restarts to win under caution for the first time. The race returned to Indy’s full oval for the first time in the post-COVID era.
Before Chevrolet’s win, drivers Kevin Harvick (2019, 2020) and Brad Keselowski (2018) recorded victories as Ford captured three straight on the famed track.
Driving Toyotas owned by JGR, Kyle Busch won consecutive starts in 2015 and 2016.