At the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway, 32nd-seed Ty Dillon threw a wrench into Denny Hamlin’s in-season tournament run, knocking the JGR driver out. With an eighth-place finish, Dillon punched his ticket to the next round in Chicago — and then, dripping with irony, gave the No. 11 a taste of his own medicine.
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Channeling Hamlin’s infamous post-win taunt, “I beat your favorite driver,” Dillon cheekily flipped the script, quipping, “All you Denny fans out there, I just knocked your favorite driver out,” and delivering the jab with a grin.
While Dillon played the role of spoiler, Hamlin saw his day unravel in the chaos of the massive wreck that left him 31st and out of contention. With his tournament bid dead in the water, Hamlin tipped his cap to Dillon on his Actions Detrimental podcast.
“Ty Dillon, he beat me. Give him his moment, people. He was ahead of me the whole f—ing race,” Hamlin said. “He texted me, he’s like, ‘Hey, I was just playing around.’ And I’m like, ‘Bro, I loved it.’”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. also weighed in, appreciating both the idea of the playful taunt and NASCAR’s bracket format for producing such unscripted theater. “I thought it was a clever comment by Ty Dillon… We got to thank this bracket challenge for those little kind of moments because Ty Dillon has been the underdog for the entire week,” Junior said.
Junior added that the line may not have been off the cuff, saying, “That quote that he gave us was probably given to him midweek in conversation, right? I bet you his crew chief, car chief, somebody said something to him and goes, ‘Hey, man, you ought to say such and such when you knock him (Hamlin) out of the bracket.'”
Dale Jr. pointed out it’s these very moments that make the bracket challenge worthwhile. “But that doesn’t happen if he doesn’t know that he’s in this bracket challenge and the bracket challenge doesn’t exist,” he said, crediting NASCAR for cooking up a format that has added spice to the midseason grind.
Joining Hamlin on the elimination list were some heavy hitters: Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Joey Logano, Daniel Suárez, Josh Berry, Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Todd Gilliland and Justin Haley.
Meanwhile, the second round is stacked with these contenders still in the hunt: Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Noah Gragson, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Elliott, Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, A.J. Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Zane Smith, and Ryan Preece.
