CHICAGO — After upsetting top-seeded Denny Hamlin in the first round of the In-Season Challenge last Saturday at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), Ty Dillon fired the parting shot heard around the NASCAR world.
“For all you Denny fans out there, I just knocked your favorite driver out,” Dillon said, borrowing a turn of phrase Hamlin himself made famous.
Dillon, the 32nd seed, acknowledged Saturday that he had planned the trash talk after Hamlin wrecked out of the Atlanta race on Lap 69.
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“It was planned when I knew he was eliminated,” Dillon said. “When I knew we had him, I told (pit reporter) Mamba (Smith) for the interview, I said, ‘Hey, give me a second after this interview, I got something to say.’
“So, somewhat spontaneous, I guess you could call it that, but it was there. It was always there, and I just wanted to lean into it a little bit.”
Dillon will face 17th-seeded Brad Keselowski in the second round on the Chicago Street Course, and he likes his chances against the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
“Honestly, I feel good,” Dillon said. “We’re going to do our best starting today and all through the race tomorrow to put pressure on him. This is a place that, if you feel like you can pressure people, they can make mistakes.
“Obviously, you’re seeing in practice in Xfinity cars, a little bit more (aggression) can get you in a lot of trouble. And I enjoy road-course racing. We ran really good in Mexico City, another one of the races that we ran up front. A lot of people credit it to being good in the rain, but we also ran really well when it turned dry, too.”
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Dillon and the rest of the Cup Series field will tackle the street course on Sunday in the Grant Park 165 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).