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Ty Gibbs Beats Ty Dillon to Win $1 Million In-Season Tournament Prize

Originally posted on Racing America on SI
By Joseph Srigley | Last updated Jul 27, 2025 9:48 PM ET

After an intense five-week stretch that included several tight battles, some full-contact moments, and a Cinderella story for the ages, Ty Gibbs was able to bring home the $1 million prize for NASCAR’s first-ever In-Season Tournament.

Gibbs finished just outside the top-20 in Sunday’s Brickyard 400, driving his No. 54 Saia LTL Freight Toyota Camry XSE to 21st, but kept a seven-position advantage over his final matchup of the tournament, Ty Dillon, who finished 28th in the No. 10 Sea Best Seafood Chevrolet.

Sunday’s 400-mile contest at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway is what several people in the sports world would refer to as “a blowout”. Gibbs had a significant advantage on Dillon from the start, but an early-race issue caved the nose in on the No. 10, destroying any speed in the Kaulig Racing machine.

That left Dillon limping around the 2.5-mile speedway for the remainder of the afternoon, with the Kaulig Racing driver just hoping that adversity would hit Gibbs and make it a worthwhile fight. That wish was not granted, as Gibbs, even in the closing laps of the race, chose to stay back from the leaders in case of chaos.

Don't spend the $1,000,000 in one place, @TyGibbs. pic.twitter.com/E1HlrHqPkK
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 27, 2025

“Disappointing obviously, but things like that happen and you can’t predict everything,” Dillon said after the race. “That has been 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.”

At the end of the day, when it came down to the Gibbs versus Dillon fight, it wasn’t all about the money, at least some of it was about the healthily discourse that comes with a good competition. There will be some good to come out of this battle too.

After being crowned the winner of the In-season Tournament, Gibbs announced that he would be donating $10,000 of his $1 million dollar winnings to a charity of Ty Dillon’s choice. Dillon has yet to confirm which charity the donation will be made to.

“We had a fast SAIA Toyota Camry,” Gibbs said. “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 safe but I want to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Thank you to TNT and NASCAR for this opportunity. It’s awesome to win it.”

Both Gibbs and Dillon will turn their attention to the final four races of the regular season at Iowa, Watkins Glen, Richmond, and Daytona, where both teams will attempt to secure a victory in order to lock themselves into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

This article first appeared on Racing America on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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