The NASCAR In-Season Tournament cleared its penultimate step at the Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday. Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick were matched up against each other after their strong runs at Sonoma the previous weekend. Gibbs came out on top of the 23XI Racing driver after battling him hard throughout the day, capitalizing on the chaos in the race’s final 10 laps.
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He finished fifth, with Reddick taking 12th. On the other side of the bracket, Ty Dillon and John Hunter Nemechek were evenly matched. They raced each other till the very end, when Dillon edged out Nemechek by a single spot, placing 20th. This has kept his dream run in the tournament alive, a streak that began by finishing ahead of Denny Hamlin in Atlanta.
Dillon then defeated Brad Keselowski at Chicago and Alex Bowman at Sonoma. Now, with his progression to the final by defeating Nemechek, he stands to win $1 million should he overcome Gibbs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this coming weekend.
One year ago, Dillon finished 19th on the historic track, and Gibbs finished 23rd. So, the upcoming battle could happen in the middle of the pack rather than at the front. But that does not mean Gibbs won’t be going for the win.
He has made it clear on multiple occasions that he always approaches the racetrack with the goal to win, regardless of the contributing elements. In Indianapolis, he will carry the same mindset.
Gibbs told the press in Dover that the aim is to win the Brickyard 400. The million dollars is just a sweet add-on. His words went, “I think it is most important to win the race. And then we can win a million bucks with it.”
Dillon might not be a realistic candidate to win on Sunday. But this is his one golden shot to mark his name in history forever. He is clearly the underdog in this story, and all he needs to do is get the better of Gibbs to write the final chapter. Luck has favored Dillon tremendously since the beginning of the tournament. Who knows, it might do so again one last time at the Brickyard.
What began as a contest between 32 drivers has now trickled down to a duel between two after a superspeedway race, a street course, a road course, and a high-banked concrete oval race. The final showdown on the rectangular oval will be remembered for ages.
