Ty Gibbs wins $1 million prize to finish NASCAR's in-season challenge

Gibbs avoided trouble to win the inaugural running of the in-season bracket challenge

Ty Dillon's incredible underdog run has come to an end, with a single driver denying him in the $1 million in-season bracket challenge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Dillon faced Ty Gibbs in the finals in a battle of the 'Tys' over the $1 million prize. Dillon had begun the event as the bottom seed before making an unlikely run through the challenge, winning every David vs. Goliath battle in front of him.

Unfortunately for him, the Cinderella story came to an end at IMS as Gibbs snagged the trophy and the monetary prize. Gibbs had the advantage from the start, starting fifth while Dillon was mired deep in the field.

Ty Dillon, Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Jonathan Bachman - Getty Images

While Gibbs' race didn't go very well in the end, Dillon's race went worse. He sustained nose damage in a restart stack-up during the second stage, eventually falling three laps down.

When the event was red-flagged for rain with just four laps to go, Gibbs was running 19th, while Dillon remained three laps behind in 30th. Dillon had faced tough odds late in previous rounds, but there was no miraculous comeback this time.

“Disappointing, obviously, but things like that happen and you can’t predict everything," said Dillon, who reflected on what could have been. "That's what has been so cool about this in-season challenge for everybody. I just hate that we didn’t get to give them a run for it there. I don’t think they would say as a team that they had the best day either.

"I think if all things are equal and we don’t knock the nose off on that restart, we are probably sitting in a pretty good position to put some pressure on him and race him out pretty solid. The first-half of the race, we were okay, and then we had a bad run there at the end of Stage One. So, I think we were going to be able to get the car back right and challenge him, but it just didn’t work out that way and it’s disappointing. Something happened where it knocked off all the air duct, and pinched off the air so the motor wouldn’t run down the straightaways. Then you are just kind of riding for the rest of the day.”

Gibbs and the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team went on to finish 21st on their way to winning the tournament, while Dillon crossed the line in 28th. He had to be careful in the chaotic double overtime, nearly getting collected in a late-race crash.

“It’s great," said Gibbs. "Want to first say, all glory to God. And, $1 million is a lot of money so I’m going to donate $10,000 to whichever charity Ty Dillon wants to give to. It’s his choice. But we had a fast SAIA Toyota Camry. Didn’t end up where we wanted to in the end. We just lost track position and was out of the way to win the race. Had to play it a little but safe but I want to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, Ray (Raymond Ramu, executive vice president and chief customer officer, SAIA LTL Freight), Fritz (Fredrick Holzgrefer, president and chief executive officer, SAIA LTL Freight), Dave Gellen (Monster Energy), Tom Norwood (Monster Energy), Mitch Covington (Monster Energy), Rodney (Monster Energy), everyone a part of it. Thank you to TNT and NASCAR for this opportunity. It’s awesome to win it!”