Ty Dillon riding wave during In-Season Challenge run: ‘It’s been good momentum’

CONCORD, N.C. -- While eliminated drivers (and fans who filled out a bracket) ponder what-ifs, Ty Dillon is taking the In-Season Challenge in stride, and for good reason. After entering the inaugural bracket-style bout as the No. 32 seed, the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet has been on a Cinderella run. The lowest-seeded Dillon kick-started the push by eliminating top-seeded Denny Hamlin at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) in the opening round after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver got caught up in an early wreck. In Round 2, the 33-year-old North Carolina native followed up the upset with an additional dub, knocking off No. 17 seed Brad Keselowski at the Chicago Street Course. RELATED: Chicago results | In-Season Challenge hub "It's been a fun adjustment to our year," Dillon said Wednesday at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, regarding the five-race tourney stretch. "I think you look at this point of year in past years, and the focus is so forward on the top 16 guys in points and maybe the top guys in points, where they're going to end up as the (playoffs) start, and the focus on the broadcast, a lot of the news is more on that and not on the guys that are kind of battling from 18 to 25th in points and in that area, and just the life that's given our race team. "In that sense, we came in as the 32nd seed, which I think was a little bit undervalued. We had probably our three worst races in a row in the seeding portion of the season, which is fine because it's given us a lot of (publicity) going into it and taking down Denny and Brad, the last two. For us, it's been good momentum. We've ran pretty decent." Decent indeed, thanks in part to eighth- and 20th-place results at Atlanta and Chicago, respectively. Dillon's momentum will look to continue at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday for Round 3 (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where he will challenge eighth-seeded Alex Bowman, a strong competitor on road courses. While besting Bowman will be tricky -- both in racing and in thinking of colorful banter aimed at the No. 48 driver should Dillon prevail over him -- Dillon has enjoyed the battle for the $1 million prize. To Dillon, the In-Season Challenge has also served the purpose of highlighting drivers up and down the points standings. Legacy Motor Club teammates John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones will battle in Round 3, while Front Row Motorsports' Zane Smith will challenge Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs on the opposite end of the bracket. "There's some underdog stories here that are getting a lot of attention, and it's made it a lot of fun for the drivers, the teams and the media and the fans," Dillon said. "It's given us a chance at this point in the season to show personality where, usually at this point of the season, it gets real quiet for teams like us, and even though we're grinding hard and the stories are just as fascinating, we don't get talked about as much. So I'm a fan of what it's done, obviously living it firsthand, and I'm looking forward to the continuation of it." MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule Dillon, in his first full-time Cup Series campaign since 2023, earned his first and only top 10 of the season thus far two weeks ago at EchoPark and currently ranks 32nd in points. Although the on-track results might not yet reflect in terms of marquee finishes, Dillon is optimistic that, by the 2025 season's end, momentum will still be pointing in the upward direction. "I think there's still a lot of good results that need to come to have the ultimate respect, but I've heard it more than I've ever heard [it in] my career, that we're overachieving and we're doing a great job and it's nice to hear, but there's a lot more to go," Dillon said. "Hopefully that continues that narrative. I think it's been the best that it's ever been for my career. I feel like the attention is starting to match up with the work that I've been putting in and the race team has been putting in, and now it's time to double down on that and take ourselves to a team that's running consistently [from] 15th to 20th, to 15th to eighth. I think if we get to that spot, we're going to have a lot of opportunity to capitalize on wins."