Ty Gibbs Extends Hot Streak to Advance to In-Season Tournament Finals

While Ty Dillon has been pulling every single rabbit out of every single hat that he can find to advance into the final round of NASCAR's in-season tournament with upset performance after upset performance, Ty Gibbs has taken a different and much quieter route.

After a fantastic run at Michigan International Speedway, Ty Gibbs entered the five-round tournament as the sixth overall seed, out of the 32 drivers in the bracket. That solid seeding position drastically helped the driver of the No. 54 Toyota Camry XSE land some easy matchups.

The first round of the tournament saw Gibbs easily take down Justin Haley at EchoPark Speedway by avoiding all the wrecks and finishing 14th. Through the most unpredictable track in the tournament, Gibbs was left with a monster pairing, having to defeat AJ Allmendinger at the Chicago Street Course.

Gibbs, at 22 years old, has developed quite the prowess on the road courses, which not only helped him defeat Allmendinger at the Chicago Street Course with a second-place finish, but also made the following week a layup at Sonoma Raceway, when he defeated Zane Smith.

Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway, Gibbs faced a tough challenge: taking down Tyler Reddick.

With the first-half of the season that the third-year driver faced, it would be hard to discount Gibbs against Reddick, especially on a one-mile oval like Dover Motor Speedway. However, the Charlotte, North Carolina-native has been doing some special things lately.

Since Michigan (the race that earned him the sixth seed in the tournament), Gibbs has been tearing it up in the NASCAR Cup Series, collecting two top-fives, three top 10s, and no finishes worse than 14th in the last six events.

That momentum apparently travelled with Gibbs to Dover, Delaware, this weekend. Even though Gibbs and Reddick ran within a couple of positions of each other all afternoon, it was the final laps of the race (after waiting over an hour for the rain to stop and the track to dry) that gave the Joe Gibbs Racing driver the edge.

Of those who came to pit road immediately after the red flag, Reddick was the first off of pit road, but Gibbs, in the restarts that followed, was able to find his way around the No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE and drive forward to collect a top five result.

“Yeah, we had a good day and put together a good finish and got around [Tyler Reddick] there on the restarts, they just worked out our way,” Gibbs said after the race. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is set to face off against Kaulig Racing’s Ty Dillon in the final round of the in-season tournament at Indianapolis Motor Speedway next Sunday.

However, Gibbs has his eyes on more than the $1 million prize. Sitting 19th on the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid, 52 points below the cutline, the driver of the No. 54 Toyota Camry XSE is looking to park it in Victory Lane, in what would be his first win at NASCAR’s top-level.

“I think it’s most important to win the race, and then we can win the million bucks with it,” Gibbs added.

The Brickyard 400 is set to be the event that decides who will take home the $1 million prize – Ty Dillon or Ty Gibbs – and be named the first-ever winner of the NASCAR In-Season Tournament. The event will take place on Sunday, July 27 at 2:00 pm ET on TNT Sports.

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