Ty Dillon’s improbable Cinderella run through the five-race NASCAR In-Season Challenge will end with one of two outcomes Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Dillon — seeded last in the Challenge’s original 32-driver, NCAA Tournament-style bracket — may be basking in the reflective glory of completing yet another major upset over a driver he’s paired against. Or he may be disappointed and even a bit pensive about what might have been.
Either way, Dillon has quite a task ahead of him. That task got even tougher on Saturday when he qualified 26th while Ty Gibbs, the driver he must finish better than at Indy, qualified fifth.
Gibbs, seeded sixth in the bracket, is a heavy favorite to beat Dillon for several reasons. But one can rest assured that Dillon is going to try everything within his power to at least put up a spirited fight.
Ty Dillon Not Giving Up, Even If The Odds Are Against Him
Ty Dillon clearly knows in his heart of hearts that Ty Gibbs will have the faster car in the Brickyard 400.
Not only did Gibbs qualify better, but he competes for Joe Gibbs Racing — one of NASCAR’s elite organizations. Dillon, meanwhile, is with a team in Kaulig Racing that boasts nowhere near the resources or past success of JGR.
Plus, Gibbs has statistically fared much better both in the last four races and in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season as a whole.
In spite of all this, Dillon believes that under the right circumstances, he can gain the upper hand at the fabled 2.5-mile speedway where in 2014 he captured his lone victory as a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver.
It certainly won’t be easy, though.
He's made magic happen before at @IMS.
If @tydillon does it again Sunday, it will be worth $1,000,000. pic.twitter.com/cUTfwBXv2p
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 24, 2025
What Strategy Has Underdog Driver Adopted For Pulling Off Another In-Season Challenge Stunner?
So what exactly is Ty Dillon’s Brickyard 400 game plan for outmaneuvering Ty Gibbs?
“If we execute our race and do the best to our abilities — no mistakes and out-execute everybody in the field — we might not have the most speed to win the race, but we’re going to do plenty to put pressure on him,” Dillon said. “And you know what they say about pressure. It creates diamonds, or it’ll crack your pipes.
“So you know, that’s what we want to do to him. We want to put as much pressure on him as possible and see how they handle it.”
Like Dillon, Gibbs has handled pressure quite well over the first four rounds of the In-Season Challenge. That’s evident by the fact that he, too, has advanced this far.
But Dillon is hoping that with a little luck at Indianapolis, he might be able to expose a potential chink in Gibbs’ proverbial armor.
“Hopefully, he massively underestimates us,” Dillon said. “And, hopefully, we’ll be there at the end to take advantage of it.”
