Joe Gibbs Racing walked off with $1 million prize in NASCAR's inaugural In-Season Challenge Tournament on Sunday in the Brickyard 400 thanks to Ty Gibbs defeating Ty Dillon in the final round of the In-Season Challenge.
Gibbs said his sponsor Saia challenged Dillon’s sponsor whoever loses gets $10,000 for Toys for Tots.
“I want to put another $10,000 on top of that. Wherever Ty (Dillon) wants it to go will be his choice,” Gibbs said.
At one point after the race, Gibbs was given a money gun to fire phony $1 million bills to the fans. However, it jammed so he just grabbed the phony money and started throwing it to the fans.
The 22-year-old Gibbs finished 21st in the Brickyard 400 won by Bubba Wallace, while Dillon placed 28th, three laps down. Dillon was never able to challenge Gibbs for the inaugural In-Season Challenge title due to damage the nose of his Kaulig Racing Chevrolet suffered on a restart.
“Something happened where it knocked off all the air duct and pinched off the air so the motor wouldn’t run down the straightaways,” Dillon said. “Then you are just kind of riding for the rest of the day.”
Gibbs was the sixth-seed in the 32-driver bracket, while Dillon was the 32nd (and lowest) seed in the tournament.
Seeds were determined by a drivers' best finish in races at Michigan International Speedway, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and Pocono Raceway. Seeding was based on a driver’s best finish in the three races. The first tiebreaker was the next-best finish in the three races, followed by the third-best finish in the three races.
If there was still a tie after that, then season-long points standings after Pocono determined who got the better seed. The bracketed 32-driver tournament began with the race at Atlanta on June 28. Subsequent rounds continued at Chicago, Sonoma, Dover and Indianapolis.
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