SPEEDWAY, Ind. — The stakes will be high for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Not only will a coveted trip to Victory Lane in the crown-jewel event be on the line, but the In-Season Challenge crown is also up for grabs. Ty Dillon and Ty Gibbs will square off in the final of a five-round tournament that began with 32 drivers at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta and dwindled to two, with the pair matching up for a trophy and a $1 million prize at one of the most iconic locations in motorsports.
Dillon has taken the NASCAR world by storm over the past month-plus. Entering as the 32nd and lowest seed, the No. 10 Kaulig Racing driver has upset top-seeded Denny Hamlin, 2012 champ Brad Keselowski, perennial playoff contender Alex Bowman and an upstart John Hunter Nemechek along his journey to the championship round. He and the Kaulig shop have also celebrated their weekly successes as little victories.
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“The last couple weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind from Monday till the race, just everything that’s been going on with the in-season tournament,” Dillon said Saturday during a press conference. “It’s been quite welcomed and very fun. We had a team luncheon on Tuesday, led by [Kaulig President] Chris Rice, which I appreciate. We started it with saying, like, it’s weird that we’re having a luncheon after finishing 20th. But what this has done for our team, the morale, even just talking to guys, just these are the summer months that are hard for these people — the men and women at Kaulig Racing and all the race teams — to keep finding motivation to work hard and build the best of the best each week.
“I appreciate the fact that Kaulig Racing, Chris Rice, [team owner] Matt Kaulig, aren’t afraid to pause and say, ‘Hey, this is a good thing, and let’s take this moment in because this is a lot of fun and good for everybody.’ It was a great moment on Tuesday, and we’re all excited for this weekend.”
Not only has the In-Season Challenge been a chance for Dillon and the No. 10 team to share their journey as the 33-year-old journeyman adapts to life back as a full-time Cup Series driver, but Dillon has taken full advantage of the spotlight — becoming the face of the tournament and bringing out unabashed personality with inspiration from professional wrestling.
“My kids and I watch a lot of WWE,” Dillon said. “It’s something we do, and the heels and the babyface, and learning how to entertain people is something that I think every driver should do homework and watch a little bit of because we deserve to give our fans a little bit more. I would say one of the unwritten stories that I give a lot of credit to is the fact that Denny Hamlin, in the last year and a half, has leaned into his ‘Denny versus the world’ thing and played into a personality to kind of go at the fans. Denny leaning into that and telling everybody that he’s beat your favorite driver, and the reaction, I mean, he’s the loudest boo, and boos aren’t a bad thing always. Him doing that allowed me to have a little fun when we beat him in Atlanta.
“I hope me being a little jovial and playing will allow some more people to feel like they can have a little more personality. We have some great, wonderful race car drivers, but I think our sport’s only going to grow if the best of our best can grow into a personality and really take the moment, harness the fans and the entertainment side of what we do, too.”
For Ty Gibbs, his outlook hasn’t changed based on the success he’s had in the In-Season Challenge, but it’s been a testament to the drastic turnaround the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team has had this summer.
It took eight races for the third-year Cup driver to log his first top 10 of 2025 (Darlington), and he had finishes of 22nd or worse in nine of the first 14 races of the year. Since a third-place result at Michigan in early June, however, Gibbs hasn’t finished worse than 14th in the last seven events. He currently sits on a three-race stretch of top 10s, including a season-best runner-up at Chicago.
At Indianapolis for his second Brickyard 400 start, Gibbs has a great admiration for the history of the facility.
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“This is the most historical track in the world,” Gibbs said. “Outside of Monza [in Italy], I think is another one like this, I don’t think there’s anywhere like this, and I really respect and appreciate the history of this place. I’ve been able to go to the museum two times now and check everything out, and all the history back to when they first opened. It’s insane to be here. Insane to race here. I think this is race-car country — is what we would call it.”
With late-race theatrics that advance them across the tournament, the conversation may arise if a scenario occurs in the closing laps on Sunday where Dillon and Gibbs are running near each other. While Indy’s high speeds will likely deter any intentional contact between the two for the trophy, the pair shared their thoughts on what they are willing to do for the $1 million prize.
“Hopefully we’re not bumper to bumper, and hopefully we’re going for the win, so we’ll see,” Gibbs said. “But maybe we are both going for the win, so I don’t know. I feel like we’ve been really good with our strategy lately and hopefully that puts us up front.”
And Ty Dillon summed his strategy up succinctly — “Ask Alex Bowman.”